SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth, ends historic trip
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The history-making Dragon spacecraft is back on Earth.
The unmanned cargo ship parachuted into the Pacific on Thursday, six hours after leaving the International Space Station. It brought back nearly 1,400 pounds of old gear.
The private SpaceX vessel is the first to return such a load since NASA's shuttles retired last year.
SpaceX guided the Dragon's descent through the atmosphere and splashdown off the coast of Mexico. A fleet of boats was in position, ready to receive the world's first commercial craft to resupply the space station.
It will take a few days to transport the capsule by barge to Los Angeles. From there, it will be trucked to the SpaceX rocket factory in Texas for unloading and inspection.
In this image provided by NASA with rays of sunshine and the thin blue atmosphere of Earth serving as a backdrop, the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft is berthed to the Earth-facing side of the International Space StationÂ’s Harmony node Sunday May 27, 2012. Expedition 31 Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers grappled Dragon at 9:56 a.m. (EDT) with the Canadarm2 robotic arm and used it to berth Dragon to the at 12:02 p.m. May 25, 2012. Dragon became the first commercially developed space vehicle to be launched to the station. Dragon is scheduled to spend about a week docked with the station before returning to Earth on May 31 for retrieval.
NASA