"Welcome home, baby," said SpaceX's elated chief,
Elon Musk, on Thursday after the Dragon capsule has parachuted into the Pacific
Ocean that ended up a successful mission of ferrying the first private delivery
to the International Space Station (ISS) and pioneers NASA's new approach to space
exploration.
The unmanned capsule parachuted into the Pacific
approximately 805 km off Mexico's Baja California, bringing back more than a
half-ton of old station equipment. It was the first time since the space
shuttles stopped flying last summer that NASA got back a big load from the
orbiting lab.
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| NASA TV (Video): SpaceX Dragon splashes back into Pacific after historic space mission |
Splashdown came at 8:42 a.m. (11:42 a.m. ET), about two
minutes earlier than expected, SpaceX and NASA reported. Musk was on hand at
the company’s mission control center near Los Angeles as operators monitored
the descent, and called the mission a “grand slam” in a briefing later
Thursday.
"You can see so many ways that it could fail and it
works and you're like, 'Wow, OK, it didn't fail'," Musk said.
“This has been a fantastic day,” Musk said, adding, “I’m
just overwhelmed with joy.” He said recovery crews have reached the capsule and
report it “looks really good.”
Watch video of Dragon splash back into Pacific:
Report Tags: SpaceX, Elon Musk, Cape Canaveral, dragon capsule, Falcon 9, Tesla Motors, PayPal, Gwynne Shotwell, International Space Station, ISS
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