The final act of SpaceX’s first mission to the International Space Station, a groundbreaking accomplishment for private space travel, is set to occur this morning as the Dragon capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.
According to NASA’s schedule, the Dragon is expected to splashdown around 11:44 a.m. EDT hundreds of miles off the coast of California. While we likely won’t get television coverage of the Dragon hitting the ocean, there will still likely be plenty of interesting commentary on NASA TV (starting around 10:15 a.m. EDT).
You can watch the coverage live on NASA TV’s Ustream page, or on NASA TV if you subscribe to it.
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The splashdown will cap off a historic run for SpaceX, which started with a successful launch on May 22 (following a failed launch a few days earlier), and a smooth capture and docking with the International Space Station on May 25. The Dragon capsule carried supplies to the ISS, and is also bringing back cargo from the station as well. (Check out a deeper rundown of the entire mission, dubbed COTS Demo Flight 2, on Wikipedia.)
Update: Looks like everything went smoothly, the SpaceX Dragon has splashed down successfully.
Via Wired; Image via SpaceX
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