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Dragon Brings Back Experiments, Equipment


March 26, 2013 | WMFE- A private spacecraft carrying over a ton of cargo from the International Space Station splashed down in the Pacific Tuesday afternoon.

[Dragon Parachutes Into the Pacific - Image Courtesy SpaceX]

The Dragon capsule launched from Cape Canaveral more than 3 weeks ago.

The spacecraft splashed down a few hundred miles off the coast of Baja California, with more than 2,500 pounds of science experiments and equipment – including a freezer load of research samples from the space station.

It’s the second of 12 contracted resupply missions to the ISS Space X will carry out with its Dragon capsule. 

The California based company is one of two to build and test new spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program. Virginia based Orbital Sciences Corp. is also preparing for a demonstration flight of it’s Cygnus capsule to the space station later this year.

SpaceX hopes to eventually ferry astronauts into orbit from US soil on board the Dragon spacecraft.

 

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