SpaceX Dragon Completes Space Station Mission

55

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule returned to Earth on Tuesday after a nearly month-long supply mission to the International Space Station.

The unmanned cargo ship, operated by Hawthorne’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula this morning. It returned with about a ton of completed science projects and refuse from the space station.

“Special delivery! Dragon now being recovered in the Pacific,” SpaceX announced in a tweet. The company, which has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to supply the space station, is run by billionaire Elon Musk, who also owns electric car developer Tesla Motors.

The recovered reusable capsule is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and will be shipped to Texas for unloading.