Dragon Spacecraft Completes Mission

This morning, at approximately 8:42 AM Pacific/11:42 AM Eastern, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) completed its historic mission when the Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific. The vehicle will now be recovered by boats and start the trip back to land.
At 11:00 AM Pacific/2:00 PM Eastern, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk will join NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini and NASA COTS Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer for a press conference to discuss today’s exciting events.

Reporters wishing to participate in the event can call in to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Newsroom at 281-483-5111. For NASA TV downlink information or to watch it live visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

Last week, SpaceX made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat. Dragon departed the space station this morning.

Broadcast quality videos, including footage from the recovery ship will be posted to vimeo.com/spacexlaunch and high-resolution photos will be posted to spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com as soon as they are available.

This is SpaceX’s second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station.