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Peter1469
03-21-2017, 08:23 PM
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns to Earth with Ocean Splashdown (http://www.space.com/36123-spacex-dragon-makes-ocean-splashdown-crs-10.html)
The Dragon cargo ship carried 5.500 lbs of gear to the ISS and returned with 5,400 lbs of stuff. Bringing stuff back is important.


"Everything from stem cells that could help us understand how human cancers start and spread after being exposed to near zero-gravity, to equipment that is paving the way toward servicing and refueling satellites while they’re in orbit will be on board," NASA officials said in a statement (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/researchers-ready-to-collect-science-tech-samples-returning-to-earth/).

Other experiments and instruments returning on Dragon included: samples from a tissue regeneration and bone defect study, which studied how weightlessness affected the regrowth of lost bone and tissue from wounds; a prototype laser communications device for faster data transmission; a prototype for a space radiation proof computer for long space missions; and a robotic refueling technology experiment (http://www.space.com/19751-refueling-in-space-could-spur-commercialization-video.html) for in-space refueling and satellite servicing.



This Dragon flight was SpaceX's tenth cargo delivery mission for NASA under a commercial cargo contract. SpaceX is also one of two companies (Boeing is the other) selected by NASA to fly astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is developing a crewed version of Dragon (http://www.space.com/36014-spacex-dragon-crew-life-support-test.html) for those flights, while Boeing is building its own CST-100 Starliner crew capsule (http://www.space.com/36092-boeing-starliner-parachute-test-success.html).

Read the entire article.

Don
03-22-2017, 12:46 AM
Its interesting watching this play out. Before we know it we might be seeing something like this.......

https://youtu.be/q3oHmVhviO8

Peter1469
03-22-2017, 03:50 AM
I think things will start moving pretty fast.