SpaceX Dragon Cargo Departs The ISS

SpaceX has confirmed that its Dragon cargo capsule has undocked from the ISS and is on its way home. Inside the capsule are a bunch of science experiments that are coming back to Earth for further study. The capsule has spent a month attached to the ISS and undocked Thursday, September 30 at 9:12 AM EDT.

Inside the capsule is 4600 pounds of material being returned to Earth. The capsule was attached to the ISS Harmony module and was guided away from the station by ground controllers. After withdrawing a safe distance from the ISS, ground controllers fired the thrusters on the capsule to send it on its path back home.

The capsule is expected to splashdown off the coast of Florida at about 11 PM EDT. After the splashdown in the ocean off the Florida coast, the capsule will be gathered and transported to a processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center. The trip from its splashdown site to Kennedy will be short.

Many of the experiments aboard the capsule are biomedical and focus on disease research. The splashdown will bring an end to CRS-23, which launched on August 9. SpaceX has another cargo mission going to the ISS in early December.