November 23, 2024

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Splashes Down Completing ISS Resupply Mission

By NASA April 30, 2024The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship approaches the International Space Station on March 16, 2023. Both spacecraft were flying 269 miles above the Indian Ocean near Madagascar at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASAAfter re-entering Earths atmosphere, SpaceXs uncrewed Dragon freight spacecraft made a parachute-assisted splashdown at 1:38 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 29, off the coast of Tampa, Florida. This marked the return of the businesss 30th contracted freight resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The spacecraft carried more than 4,100 pounds of valuable scientific experiments and other freight back to Earth.Next, 4 SpaceX Crew-8 members will board a Dragon team spacecraft on Thursday, May 4, and undock the vehicle from the forward port of the stations Harmony module and redock to Harmonys zenith port. NASA television coverage will start on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. Undocking is set up at 7:45 a.m. with redocking set up at 8:28 a.m.April 28, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the area station consisting of the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft Endeavour, Northrop Grummans Cygnus area freighter, the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship, and the Progress 86 and 87 resupply ships. Credit: NASAThat will clear the forward port of Harmony for the arrival of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) objective. They are arranged to go for 10:34 pm on Monday, May 6, night atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.