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| SpaceX Dragon returns from ISS [PHOTO: NASA] |
"With a big
splash in the Pacific Ocean today, we are reminded American ingenuity is alive
and well and keeping our great nation at the cutting edge of innovation and
technology development," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"Just a little over one year after we retired the Space Shuttle, we have
completed the first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Not with a government owned and operated system, but rather with one built by a
private firm -- an American company that is creating jobs and helping keep the
U.S. the world leader in space as we transition to the next exciting chapter in
exploration. Congratulations to SpaceX and the NASA team that supported them
and made this historic mission possible."
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. This includes a GLACIER freezer packed with research samples
collected in the orbiting laboratory's unique microgravity environment. These
samples will help advance multiple scientific disciplines on Earth and provide
critical data on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.
The remainder of the cargo will be returned to Texas with the capsule.
The ability to return
frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be tremendously beneficial
to the station's research community. Not since the space shuttle have NASA and
its international partners been able to return considerable amounts of research
and samples for analysis.
The Dragon launched
atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida,
on Oct. 7. It carried 882 pounds of cargo to the complex, including 260 pounds
of crew supplies, 390 pounds of scientific research, 225 pounds of hardware and
several pounds of other supplies. This included critical materials to support
166 scientific investigations, of which 63 were new. Returning with the Dragon
capsule was 1,673 pounds of cargo, including 163 pounds of crew supplies, 866
pounds of scientific research, and 518 pounds of hardware.
The mission was the
first of at least 12 cargo resupply missions to the space station planned by
SpaceX through 2016 under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.
SpaceX is one of two
companies that built and tested new cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial
Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Orbital Sciences is the other
company participating in COTS. A demonstration flight of Orbital's Antares
rocket and Cygnus spacecraft to the station is planned in early 2013.
NASA initiatives like
COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program are helping develop a robust U.S.
commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe,
reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and
low-Earth orbit. In addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners
are making progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5
years.