spacetoday.net: Dragon splashes down in Pacific

Posted: Thu, May 31, 2012, 9:00 PM ET (0100 GMT)
Dragon after splashdown on C2+ mission (SpaceX)

SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft departed from the International Space Station early Thursday and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, wrapping up a successful demonstration mission. The Dragon was unberthed from the ISS by the station's robotic arm at 4:07 am EDT (0807 GMT) and soon departed the vicinity of the station. The spacecraft reentered the atmosphere several hours later, splashing down several hundred kilometers off the coast of Baja California at 11:42 am EDT (1542 GMT). A SpaceX recovery ship pulled the capsule out of the ocean a short time later and will return it to California. The capsule is carrying over 600 kilograms of experiments and unneeded equipment from the station, some of which will be offloaded at the Port of Los Angeles and the rest after the capsule is transported to a SpaceX facility in Texas. The splashdown wrapped up a first-of-its-kind mission by a commercial spacecraft, successfully approaching the ISS and being berthed to the station last week. The flight clears the way for SpaceX to begin regular cargo missions to the ISS, with the first planned for later this year.