SpaceX cargo Dragon capsule to sprinkle down off Florida coast on Monday
An uncrewed capsule Dragon capsule is scheduled to sprinkle down off the Florida coast on Monday night around 12 hours after its takeoff from the International Space Station.
The SpaceX capsule, which will be stacked with 5,200 pounds of scientific experiments and other cargo, will undock from the ISS at 9:25 a.m.
“Dragon will fire its thrusters to move a safe distance from the station’s space-facing port of the Harmony module, then initiate a deorbit burn to begin its re-entry sequence into Earth’s atmosphere,” according to NASA.
Dragon is required to make its parachute-helped splashdown around 9 p.m. – the primary return of a freight resupply rocket in the Atlantic Ocean.
“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, and back into the hands of the researchers,” NASA said.
Dragon launched Dec. 6 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, showing up at the station a little more than 24 hours after the fact and accomplishing the first autonomous docking of a U.S. commercial cargo resupply spacecraft. It represented the organization’s 21st resupply services mission for NASA.
Past showing up cargo Dragon shuttle were caught and connected to the space station by astronauts working the station’s robotic Canadarm2. The rocket delivered in excess of 6,400 pounds of hardware, research examinations, and crew supplies.
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