The Dragon cargo module was launched July 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now the capsule is back on Earth. It is expected to be on Sunday.
The Dragon cargo ship is docked at the front of the International Space Station’s Harmony module. From there the return journey began. Scientists have spent the past few weeks bringing completed projects on board, and sending their research to colleagues on the ground.
At the time of docking at 11.05 a.m. Saturday, the station was approximately 415 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean. The Dragon is now in Earth’s orbit. On Sunday, SpaceX ground controllers at its base in Hawthorne, California, will issue a deorbit order. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will then be parachuted into the water to land off the coast of Florida.
falling water
“Immersion off the coast of Florida allows experiments to be rapidly transferred to the NASA Space Station processing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, allowing researchers to collect data without exposing samples to Earth’s gravity,” NASA said. NASA TV will not broadcast Earth orbit and abort a water landing because it is a standard mission. However, as always, mission updates can be found at Follow the space station blog.
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