A robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule is scheduled to leave the International Space Station today (June 29), and you can watch the departure live.
The Dragon arrived at the ISS on June 6, delivering 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of supplies and scientific experiments to the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab. The freighter’s time in orbit is now up, and it’s about to come back to Earth.
The SpaceX capsule is scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) today at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, starting at 11:45 a.m. EDT (1545 GMT).
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A robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule approaches the International Space Station for docking. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The cargo craft will make a roughly 14.5-hour return trek, ultimately splashing down off the coast of Florida on Friday (June 30) at around 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT). NASA will not livestream the splashdown, agency officials said.
Dragon’s current mission is called CRS-28, because it’s the 28th that SpaceX is flying under a series of Commercial Resupply Services contracts with NASA. The company also holds contracts to fly agency astronauts to and from the ISS, which it does with the crewed version of Dragon.
Dragon brought up a variety of science experiments and hardware on CRS-28, including the fifth and sixth International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs).
Spacewalking astronauts installed those two iROSAs this month, further augmenting the orbiting lab’s power output.
CRS-28’s Dragon is bringing more than 3,600 pounds (1,630 kg) of scientific gear and equipment back down to Earth with it, NASA officials said.
This is a unique capability of Dragon. The other two robotic freighters that currently fly cargo to the ISS — Russia’s Progress spacecraft and the privately built American vehicle Cygnus — burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when their missions are over.
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