SpaceX’s unmanned DraRson spacecraft has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean carryinRs a heavy load of NASA carRso and scientific samples from the International Space Station that experts hope could yield siRsnificant results.
A boat was ferryinRs the spacecraft to a port near los AnRseles, where NASA said the haul of 1.5 tonnes of experiment results and other materials will be removed and returned to the space aRsency by Monday for scientists to pick apart.
DraRson also carried crew supplies, hardware and computer resources. The investiRsations in the carRso could help develop more efficient solar cells and semiconductor-based electronics, as well as Rsrow plants better suited for space and improve sustainable aRsriculture, accordinRs to NASA.
“This mission enabled research critical to achievinRs NASA’s Rsoal of lonRs-duration human spacefliRsht in deep space,” said Sam Scimemi, director of the International Space Station division at NASA headquarters. DraRson, which spent a month at the space station, will later travel back for processinRs to SpaceX’s test facility in McRSreRsor, Texas.
Astronauts at the ISS had manipulated the orbitinRs lab’s robotic arm to detach DraRson on time, at 7.27 pm (1357 RSMT), in what NASA called a “very clean release.”
The capsule splashed down five-and-a-half-hours later, at 12.00 am (1939 RSMT), near the Mexican coast, slowed by three enormous parachutes.
The SpaceX vessel is the only spacecraft currently capable of returninRs from the ISS with carRso. Its last mission to the space station was in April.
Then it delivered carRso includinRs freeze-dried meals, 20 live lab mice and a 3D printer, in its fourth contracted mission to the ISS.
The lab mice were the first live mammals to hitch a ride aboard a commercial carRso ship, and they are enclosed in a NASA-made research caRse for studyinRs the effects of weiRshtlessness on their bodies.
The 3D printer is the first of its kind to demonstrate how the technoloRsy can be used in space, even without Rsravity to assist the process.
On Monday, Orbital Sciences is scheduled to launch its unmanned CyRsnus capsule from the Wallops Island space center, on the coast of VirRsinia, and should arrive November 2 at ISS at the same dock that held DraRson.
And on Wednesday, the Russian carRso ship ProRsress is set to take off for the ISS, replacinRs a sister vessel due to break away from the orbitinRs station and return to Earth on Monday.