After a successful launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA on Wednesday, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule could be seen hurtling across Zululand’s night skies.

On what was a clear autumn evening, the Dragon aptly named Freedom was seen at about 18:30 on Freedom Day from Richards Bay.

The four astronauts aboard the capsule were headed to the International Space Station (ISS).

This mission was SpaceX’s fourth astronaut mission to the ISS for Nasa, and the second crewed launch in less than three weeks.

The astronauts were expected to dock with the ISS at around 1am this morning (Thursday) South African time.

Just over nine minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed on the SpaceX droneship named A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) in the Atlantic Ocean.

What is the Dragon capsule?
The Dragon spacecraft can carry up to seven passengers to and from earth’s orbit and beyond.

It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to earth and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.