Photo: SpaceX
@SpaceX confirmed the splashdown of its Dragon spacecraft on Twitter on Monday, officially marking a successful mission for the company’s 24th resupply mission for the International Space Station (ISS).
The company also said that the spacecraft would be retrieved by SpaceX’s recovery team, at which point the data and science on board would be transported via helicopter to researchers at the Kennedy NASA Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The onboard data includes over 4,900 pounds of different experiments, hardware and data, largely including research over a variety of information on agriculture and physics in space.
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX’s 24th resupply mission to the @space_station!
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2022
SpaceX’s initially-planned return window for the Dragon spacecraft was marked for Sunday, January 23, though the company was forced to delay splashdown until Monday, due to unfavorable weather off of Florida’s coast.
The SpaceX Dragon also helped Crew-2 depart from the ISS in November, following the second NASA mission transporting astronauts to and from the orbiting base.
Earlier this month, SpaceX also announced that it had been awarded a $102 million U.S. Air Force contract, in which it will oversee the launch of various pieces of cargo for the military branch.
The company also submitted plans just last week for a new 320,000 square-foot SpaceX complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
