Friday, August 26, 2016

SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down In Pacific After Successful ISS Mission

NASA said Friday morning that SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has successfully splashed down at 8:47 a.m. PST, from the International Space Station (ISS), returning more than 3,000 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples from space. The Dragon--which was launched to the ISS as part of the ninth, commercial resupply mission to the ISS--is expected to be delivered to a port near Los Angeles within the next 48 hours. NASA did not say exactly where in Los Angeles the Dragon will dock, although SpaceX has a facility near Long Beach. NASA said that SpaceX's Dragon is the only, space station resupply spacecraft which it says is able to return a "significant amount" of cargo to Earth for the agency. The Dragon has been attached to the ISS for the last month, after it successfully launched supplies into space on the CRS-9 mission.