The Dragon Splashes Down
Thursday, May 31, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson
May 31, 2012 | WMFE - The Dragon space capsule has returned to Earth. The first ever, privately-owned, spacecraft to travel to the International Space Station splashed down in the Pacific at 11:42 (Eastern Time) off the coast of Southern California.
SpaceX ships are now on their way to the splash down site to retrieve the capsule.
Early this morning, astronauts used a robotic arm on the space station to release the Dragon capsule after a five-day visit. Dragon delivered 1000 pounds of supplies to the station and returned with about 14 hundred pounds of used equipment and completed science experiments. The California-based SpaceX became the first private company to send a ship to the ISS. The company hopes to repeat its success with more cargo missions and, eventually, to carry astronauts to the station.
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