SpaceX successfully splashed down its Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Florida with cargo and supplies from the International Space Station late last weekend. The aerospace company has released a video showing the complex maneuver the spacecraft has to go through after detaching from the flying laboratory before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
The spacecraft has to fire its Draco engines in a precise maneuver that takes it away from the Space Station and puts it on a course towards the planet.
The splash down marked the 25th contracted cargo resupply mission for the Elon Musk-led company, which has emerged as the biggest commercial space exploration entity.
The spacecraft returned more than 1,814 kilograms of valuable scientific experiments and other cargo back to Earth from zero gravity.
The spacecraft, during its latest mission, ferried several scientific equipments and experiments from space, which include the Materials International Space Station Experiment-15-NASA (MISSE-15-NASA) experiments, which tests, qualifies, and quantifies the impact of the low-Earth orbit environment on new materials and components in space.
The cargo mission also carried with it the Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE) which demonstrates a new technology using water evaporation to remove heat from spacesuits and maintain appropriate temperatures for crew members during spacewalks.
Meanwhile, a European Space Agency-led investigation, the Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter also returned to Earth. This equipment enables the rapid use of formerly prepared bio-inks, containing the patient’s own cells, to form a band-aid patch in the case of injury.
Once the spacecraft splashed down and was recovered from the water, the critical science aboard the spacecraft was transported via helicopter to the Kennedy space center and handed over to researchers.
