Home again! SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashes down off California coast

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A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is back on Earth.

The robotic Dragon undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday (June 16) at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT), while the two spacecraft were flying about 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the northern Pacific Ocean.

The freighter's trip home was relatively brief: It splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California city of Oceanside today (June 17) at 8:11 a.m. EDT (1211 GMT; 5:11 a.m. local time), NASA officials said in an update.

The Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 15, kicking off CRS-34, the company's 34th commercial resupply services flight for NASA. It was the sixth such mission for this particular capsule, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The capsule arrived at the ISS two days later, delivering nearly 6,500 pounds (2,950 kilograms) of food, scientific hardware and other equipment to the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab.

The freighter hauled thousands of pounds of cargo back home as well, "carrying samples that could shape future space exploration and life on Earth," NASA officials wrote in a June 12 media advisory.

"Research returning includes bioprinted organ and cartilage tissue, data on improving cryogenic fuel storage for future space missions, and DNA‑inspired materials to develop new cancer treatments," they added. "The returning hardware includes an ocular imaging device used to monitor crew members' eye health, an absorbent bed that filters trace contaminants from cabin air, and a separator pump from the waste and hygiene compartment."

Dragon is the only operational ISS cargo spacrecraft that can survive the fiery downward trip through Earth's atmosphere.

The other active freighters — Northrop Grumman's Cygnus, Russia's Progress and Japan's HTV-X — are all expendable, burning up in our air at the end of their missions.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. ET on June 16 with news of undocking from the ISS, then again at 11:15 a.m. ET on June 17 with news of splashdown.

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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