An uncrewed SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule carrying research on a return journey from the International Space Station (ISS) has sprinkled down off the coast of Florida. Leaving the space station on Thursday morning, the craft traveled back to Earth and has been recuperated with the goal that the scientific experiments inside can be shipped off analysts.
The uncrewed Cargo Dragon has been docked with the ISS since it showed up on June 5. It carried supplies for the group as well as cargo like new carry out solar arrays utilized in the continuous upgrade of the station’s power system. It remained docked to the station’s Harmony module until this Thursday, June 8, when it was undocked in a procedure overseen by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough.
On Friday, June 9, the Dragon played out a deorbit consume to move it away from the station and on its journey back to Earth, prior to sprinkling down in the Gulf of Mexico close to Tallahassee, Florida at 11:29 p.m. ET.
SpaceX tweeted along the way, including a staggering shot of the Cargo Dragon moving away from the space station and getting ready to head back to Earth.
Among the cargo being gotten back from the ISS was 5,300 pounds of experiments and equipment, including a few investigations into what the microgravity environment of the space station means for things like bacteria and the freeze-drying process. To get these outcomes to researchers as fast as could really be expected, with minimal exposure to Earth gravity, NASA utilized a quick strategy to get cargo from the capsule to the Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility. This is the second time a Cargo Dragon has sprinkled down off the coast of Florida, as past capsules sprinkled down in the Pacific Ocean instead.
“Splashing down off the coast of Florida enables quick transportation of the science aboard the capsule to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility, delivering some science back into the hands of the researchers as soon as four to nine hours after splashdown,” NASA wrote. “This shorter transportation timeframe allows researchers to collect data with minimal loss of microgravity effects.”
