Yesterday , July 3 , SpaceX ’s Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station ( ISS ) – and we were honour with some ratherincredible photosin the process .
Dragon had arrived at the post on June 5 , having launched on June 3 . It had flown to the station before , in September 2014 , making this SpaceX ’s first spacecraft ever to go to space twice .
It lead the station at 2.41am EDT ( 7.41am BST ) . As it drifted away , NASA astronaut Jack Fischer was capable to snap a remarkable delineation of the glint of the ballistic capsule as it headed towards our standard atmosphere . you could see that picture up above .
“ Beautiful expanse of stars - but the ‘ long ’ orange one is SpaceX-11 reentering ! ” he write onTwitter . “ Congrats team for a successful splashdown & great mission ! ”
This was n’t the only amazing mental picture Fischer snatch , though . On July 2 , he also showed off an amazing image of the spacecraft attached to the ballistic capsule ’s robotic weapon . Here you may see its solar panel fully extended , with the shadow of part of the place on them .
Then the next day , he took another guesswork – all presumably from the station ’s Columbus faculty – as Dragon started err towards Earth . Here the sunlight shed a gorgeous orangeness incandescence on the spacecraft , as it lowered its range to re - enter the atmosphere .
For SpaceX , this mission – their eleventh schedule cargo trip to the ISS – is a huge accomplishment . They ’ve already proven theirFalcon 9 rocketcan be recyclable , and now they ’ve shown their spacecraft can be too . This has major implications for reducing the cost of space travel in the future .
But this is not the only reusable space vehicle to visit the ISS , or indeed make it to revolve . You might remember a little something called the Space Shuttle . NASA ’s five satellite made multiple repeat trips to area , with the last being Atlantis in July 2011 on the STS-135 mission .
Dragon is unique in that it can return large amounts of lading to Earth , something other spacecraft can not presently do . On this delegacy , it returned 1,900 kg ( 4,100 pounds ) of freight , which include live mice that had been used in an experiment . Sadly , these micewill be euthanizedand examined after landing , even if they survive the trek . So it goes .
To end on a more confident bill , Dragon also returned plenty ofother interesting science experiment , include a fruit fly sheet investigating that had been carried to the post almost 10 year ago . And we ’ve now got a full - fledged reclaimable ballistic capsule in operation . That ’s not bad , right ?
