SpaceX Cargo Dragon Recovery

After its successful parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, at 11:29 p.m. EST on July 9, 2021, the cargo Dragon spacecraft was loaded aboard SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery ship.
The SpaceX cargo Dragon returned more than 5,300 pounds of scientific experiments and other cargo from the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 22nd commercial resupply services mission. Splashing down off the coast of Florida enables quick transportation of the science aboard the capsule to NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility, delivering some science back into the hands of the researchers as soon as four to nine hours after splashdown.

This shorter transportation timeframe allows researchers to collect data with minimal loss of microgravity effects.

Photo credit: SpaceX KSC-20210709-PH-SPX01_0001 Larger image