CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A SpaceX Dragon capsule has returned to Earth after a stay of more than a month at the International Space Station.
A robotic arm released the unmanned capsule packed with 3,000 pounds of cargo at 6:11 a.m. and fired thrusters several times to move a safe distance away.
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That began a journey that culminated in a Pacific Ocean splashdown, about 300 miles off the coast of Baja, California, shortly before noon Eastern Time.
The Dragon launched early July 18 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, and berthed at the station two days later.
Among the 5,000 pound of cargo it delivered was a docking ring, installed recently on a spacewalk, that will enable astronauts to visit the the orbiting research complex in commercial vehicles now being developed under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Those include SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsules, which are targeting two-person test flights to the ISS late next year or in early 2018.
The Dragon is the only spacecraft flying today that can return large amounts of cargo to Earth.
Among the cargo returning today were a dozen mice from a Japanese experiment, the first to be brought home from the station alive in a Dragon.