SpaceX’s 30th Dragon cargo capsule has successfully departed from the International Space Station (ISS) and is now on its way back to Earth. The spacecraft left the ISS on April 28, 2024, during orbital nighttime over Thailand, making its journey home.
The Dragon capsule is expected to make an ocean splashdown off the coast of Florida around 1 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 30. This mission, known as CRS-30, marks the 30th cargo delivery mission to the ISS conducted by SpaceX under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
Launched on March 21 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, CRS-30 delivered over 3 tons of scientific hardware and supplies to the space station. In addition to its delivery mission, Dragon will return to Earth carrying more than 4,100 pounds (1,860 kilograms) of supplies and scientific experiments designed for the microgravity environment of the ISS.
The safe return of Dragon and its cargo is crucial for transporting experiments back to NASA’s Space Systems Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This allows researchers to collect data with minimal exposure to Earth’s gravity, enhancing the integrity of the experiments conducted in space.
Dragon is the only cargo craft capable of bringing equipment back from the ISS intact, as other spacecraft, such as Russia’s Progress vehicle and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, burn up in Earth’s atmosphere upon completion of their missions.
