Monday, October 29, 2012

SpaceX Dragon Returns Successfully From ISS

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully touched down at 12:22 p.m. on Sunday, landing off the coast of Baja California, in the first cargo delivery flight of the spacecraft to the International Space Station. According to NASA, the Dragon is now returning to a port near Los Angeles in preparation for being returned to NASA in the next 48 hours, to process research samples from the ISS. The successful return of the SpaceX Dragon is the first time since the retirement of the Space Shuttle that NASA has been able to return significant amounts of samples and cargo from the ISS. The Dragon had been docked at the ISS since October 7th; the capsule returned to earth with 1,673 pounds of cargo. Hawthorne-based SpaceX is a venture funded startup, headed by tech mogul Elon Musk.

---