SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH AFTER FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION

FROM:  NASA

HOUSTON -- SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 
at 11:42 a.m. EDT a few hundred miles west of Baja California, 
Mexico, marking a successful end to the first mission by a commercial 
company to resupply the International Space Station. 

"Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and NASA who worked hard to 
make this first commercial mission to the International Space Station 
an overwhelming success," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. 
"This successful splashdown and the many other achievements of this 
mission herald a new era in U.S. commercial spaceflight. American 
innovation and inspiration have once again shown their great strength 
in the design and operation of a new generation of vehicles to carry 
cargo to our laboratory in space. Now more than ever we're counting 
on the inventiveness of American companies and American workers to 
make the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit 
destinations accessible to any and all who have dreams of space 
travel." 

The Dragon capsule will be taken by boat to a port near Los Angeles, 
where it will be prepared for a return journey to SpaceX's test 
facility in McGregor, Texas, for processing. Some cargo will be 
removed at the port in California and returned to NASA within 48 
hours. The remainder will be returned to Texas with the capsule. 

The capsule delivered to the station 1,014 pounds of supplies 
including experiments, food, clothing and technology. On its return 
trip to Earth, the capsule carried science experiments that will be 
returned to researchers hoping to gain new insights provided by the 
unique microgravity environment in the station's laboratories. In 
addition to the experiments, Dragon returned a total of 1,367 pounds 
of hardware and cargo no longer needed aboard the station. 

Dragon's journey to the space station was SpaceX's second 
demonstration mission under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation 
Services (COTS) Program, which provides investments to stimulate the 
commercial space industry in America. The mission began May 22 as the 
capsule launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida 
aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Following a series of tests of its 
maneuverability and abort systems, the capsule was grappled and 
berthed to the space station by the crew members of Expedition 31 
aboard the orbiting complex. 

In the next several weeks, NASA will evaluate the Dragon capsule's 
mission performance to close out remaining COTS milestones. Once that 
work is completed NASA and SpaceX will set the target date for the 
company's first full cargo mission. 

In addition to fostering the development of new American cargo 
vehicles, NASA also is helping spur innovation and development of new 
spacecraft and launch vehicles from the commercial industry to 
develop safe, reliable and cost-effective capabilities to transport 
astronauts to low Earth orbit and the space station. 

NASA also is developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System 
(SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket that will provide an 
entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. 
Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo 
missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth 
orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.