That'll cap off our live coverage of the SpaceX Dragon crew's mission to dock to the International Space Station.

By all accounts from the NASA and SpaceX ground control crews on Earth, the mission has so far happened without issue.

US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded on the ISS since June last year, are now expected to return home to Earth by Wednesday.

You'll be able to watch back and read all of the key moments in our article above, and via our main ABC News home page.

Thanks for joining us!

The SpaceX crew is now floating alongside the International Space Station astronauts, and are holding a formal welcome ceremony to handover responsibilities.

Each of the SpaceX Dragon crew members have offered their thanks to their friends, families and the ground control teams on Earth.

Commander Anne C McClain said the standout for the Dragon crew was seeing the ISS float towards them while in orbit.

"Crew 10 had had a great journey up here," Ms McClain said.

"I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and we saw the space station for the first time.

"Let me tell you, that is such an amazing journey. You can hardly even put it into words."

The SpaceX Falcon 9 Dragon shuttle crew has officially boarded the International Space Station on their mission to relive US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from their service on the ISS.

The Dragon shuttle's hatch door was officially opened at 3:35pm AEST, as confirmed by NASA ground control in Dallas, Texas.

The shuttle crew then floated through each hatch door and into the ISS at precisely 3:45pm AEST.

Bells have been rung to welcome the new astronauts to the ISS, followed by plenty of hugs, smiles and a lot of excitement.

Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi was first to float through the hatch, followed by Russia's Kirill Peskov, the US's Nichole Ayers and finally the Dragon's commander Anne C McClain.

As we've been reporting, a process is currently underway on-board the International Space Station to safely connect the hatch openings of the ISS and the docked SpaceX Falcon 9 Dragon shuttle.

Much of that process has involved US astronaut Butch Wilmore preparing the ISS's hatch so that the Dragon shuttle can be properly pressurised without the risk of any dangerous moisture seeping through.

While that has been happening, the SpaceX crew have been going about their own preparatory steps, including a process to dry their space suits.

A moment ago, we saw one of the astronauts on-board the ISS float back into the main body of the station from the hatch door opening while wearing what appeared to be an alien mask.

NASA has reported that goggles, masks and gloves are necessary during the process to safeguard the hatch doors.

There's always time for a quick joke!

We've just heard US astronaut Butch Wilmore radio down to NASA's control centre on Earth, saying he expects to open the first hatch door on-board the International Space Station (ISS) within the next five minutes.

That means the ISS has successfully pressurised to the docking mechanism connecting the station to the Dragon.

Inside that hatch door, there is another hatch — which is the door of the Dragon shuttle. 

That door also has a window on it, which will mean that for the first time the ISS crew will be able to physically see the SpaceX crew in front of them.

From there, there will be some more engineer work done to correct the atmospheric pressure between the ISS and Dragon, and shortly after a likely reunion between the two groups of astronauts.

As you'll be able to see in our live stream of the SpaceX Falcon 9 mission to the International Space Station, astronauts on-board the ISS are currently working to prepare for hatch doors to open.

It's a slow process, but one of the notable moments so far since the SpaceX's Dragon shuttle docked has been the reaction of US astronaut Suni Williams.

Ms Williams has floated into shot multiple times since the shuttle docking, and always with a large smile.

It appears she is happy to finally be coming home to Earth!

Hi Jan! Great question.

By all accounts, there will definitely be a moment of reunion between the four astronauts currently on-board the SpaceX Dragon shuttle, and those on-board the International Space Station.

For veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, that moment will no doubt be an emotional one — given they've been stationed on-board the ISS since June last year.

At the top of our blog page here, you can see a live stream of everything happening right now on the ISS.

Engineers on-board both the International Space Station and SpaceX's Falcon 9 Dragon shuttle are currently working on both spacecraft's internal hatch doors.

We've heard from the NASA control centre in Dallas, Texas that there are three hatches between the space where SpaceX's crew currently is, and the astronauts on-board the ISS.

So far, power has been connected between the ISS and Dragon — meaning the SpaceX shuttle no longer needs to rely solely on battery power to keep its lights on and operations underway.

The next step is for air to slowly be leaked through each of the spacecrafts' hatch doors to pressurise the shuttle correctly.

NASA says the ISS crew is aiming for an ideal pressure of 14.7psi — which is about the same as sea level on Earth.

It's also not a quick process. We're still not expecting all of the hatch doors to be opened for about an hour from now.

We've just heard the first words from Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who is on-board SpaceX's Falcon 9 shuttle.

"On behalf of the entire crew. I would like to thank all the personnel — especially our SpaceX friends who trained us and enabled us to safely arrive at the International Space Station," Mr Onishi said.

"It was so amazing to see the ISS shining in the darkness of space and symbolizing human beings' technology and the international cooperation.

"It's such a great honour to be part of this.

"We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us that we are looking forward to.

"Thank you very much to everybody that helped us to get here."