A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule left the International Space Station and began returning to Earth on Friday (Aug. 19), setting the stage for a long weekend.
The unmanned ones dragon The supply ship undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:05 a.m. EDT (15:05 GMT) as both ships cruised 259 miles above the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. The spacecraft will return Saturday (Aug. 20), NASA officials said.
“Goodbye Dragon, thanks for all the supplies and science,” NASA spacecraft communicator Michael Ellsworth radioed the station’s crew from Mission Control in Houston. “We look forward to your return to Earth.”
“Congratulations to the team on the successful SpaceX-25 mission,” NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins responded from the space station. Dragon undocking video showed stunning views of the spacecraft pulling away from the ISS during an orbital sunrise.
Related: SpaceX’s Dragon: 1st private spacecraft to reach space station
Image 1 of 3
The SpaceX Dragon CRS-25 spacecraft departs from the International Space Station during orbital sunrise. (Image credit: NASA TV)
Image 1 of 3
The SpaceX Dragon CRS-25 spacecraft lifts off from the International Space Station on August 19, 2022. (Image credit: NASA TV)Image 1 of 3
The SpaceX Dragon CRS-25 spacecraft as it appeared nearly 100 meters from the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA TV)Image 1 of 3
Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 14 and arrived at the ISS two days later with about 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of supplies and scientific hardware for the orbiting lab’s occupants. NASA and SpaceX initially expected to undock the Dragon cargo ship on Thursday, but canceled the launch due to bad weather at its splash site off the coast of Florida.
The freighter is scheduled to return land in an ocean splash off the coast of Florida at 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT) Saturday, NASA officials said. It is packed for the return trip with approximately 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg) of experiments and other equipment for researchers to analyze. NASA and SpaceX are not expected to live stream the landing, but will likely share updates on social media.
Dragon’s current mission is called Commercial Resupply Services 25, or CRS-25 and SpaceX-25 for short. As the name suggests, it is the 25th contracted cargo flight that SpaceX has flown to the ISS for NASA.
SpaceX also has a separate agreement with NASA to fly astronaut missions there from the orbiting lab, which it does with the manned version of Dragon. SpaceX is halfway through the fourth of these astronaut missions, called Crew-4and is scheduled to launch Crew-5 in late September.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on August 19 with confirmation of a successful undocking of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship from the space station.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or enabled Facebook (opens in a new tab).