SpaceX rocket splashes down

[Deano]

The world's first commercial space cargo carrier returned to Earth, ending its revolutionary voyage to the International Space Station with an old-fashioned splashdown in the Pacific

The unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule parachuted into the ocean about 800 kilometres off Mexico's Baja California, bringing back more than a half-ton of old station equipment. It was the first time the US space agency, Nasa, received a large load from the orbiting space station since its space shuttles stopped flying last year.

The dramatic return capped a test mission that was virtually flawless, beginning with the May 22 launch aboard the SpaceX company's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida and continuing through the space station docking three days later and the departure just six hours before it hit the water.

"Launch, docking, reentry and recovery successful," SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, said in a statement provided by the California-based company.

"Welcome home, baby."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10810026

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