SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Splashes Down on Earth from International Space Station

After nearly a month of being attached to the International Space Station, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday and brought back over 1,000 lbs. of science cargo, including 150 experiments conducted by ISS astronauts.

The SpaceX-3 Commercial Resupply Services flight was originally scheduled for March 16, but over a month of delays had the mission rescheduled for April 18. Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Falcon 9 rocket brought the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, where it was docked on April 20.

The resupply mission featured over 5,000 lbs. of cargo for the ISS astronauts, including food, experiments, computers, tools, and other accessories and necessities. Upon its return to Earth, the Dragon drastically minimized its load to 1,600 lbs. of experiments and old equipment aboard the space station for NASA. It splashed into the Pacific Ocean yesterday, only five hours after being detached from the ISS' big robotic arm.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft is the only supply ship capable of returning items to Earth. Other spacecraft tested for the mission burned up on re-entry, which is likely a reason NASA agreed to a $1.6 billion contract with SpaceX to conduct resupply missions to the ISS that runs through 2016. By 2017, SpaceX hopes it will be granted the right to ferry station astronauts from the ISS to Earth.

The Dragon spacecraft returned pertinent experiments for space research that ISS astronauts from expeditions 39 and 40 conducted. NASA is eager to review the results of the experiments because scientists could learn new information about outer space and future travels.

"SpaceX is delivering important research experiments and cargo to the space station," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, in a NASA news release from April 18. "The diversity and number of new experiments is phenomenal. The investigations aboard Dragon will help us improve our understanding of how humans adapt to living in space for long periods of time and help us develop technologies that will enable deep space exploration."

NASA announced that they plan to extend the life of the International Space Station until 2024 and they will also be conducting missions to a nearby asteroid as well as Mars missions by 2030. They hope that these experiments can help them further develop the future missions.