DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The SpaceX Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft was expected to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) this morning at 10 10 a.m. and then splash down off the waters of Daytona Beach at 9 p.m. this evening.
However, due to weather concerns at the splashdown site, the undocking and flight back to Earth was delayed until a future date.
The Cargo Dragon 2 is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX. It’s the first reusable cargo spacecraft that’s capable of also transporting people.
It has two variants: Crew Dragon, a space capsule capable of ferrying up to seven astronauts, and Cargo Dragon. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and returns to Earth via a parachute-assisted ocean splashdown.
Its first crewed flight occurred in May 2020 with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.
SpaceX plans to reuse each Cargo Dragon capsule up to five times.
The Cargo Dragon 2 was launched in the CRS-21 mission on Dec. 6, 2020. It will bringing back science experiments and lots of them. The Cargo Dragon 2 is loaded with 5,200 pounds of important scientific cargo, including live mice, and the results of a variety of scientific experiments the crew performed in microgravity.
The previous recovery zones have been in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California.
But by splashing down in Florida, SpaceX and NASA will be able to recover the spacecraft faster than before to return the experiments to scientists with minimal loss of the effects of microgravity.
Stable weather ensures the cargo and the SpaceX and NASA staff are safe as the spacecraft is recovered. Unfortunately, that was not possible on Monday evening.
NASA says this is the first time that science experiments will return from the ISS through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida since the retirement of the space shuttle.
SpaceX and NASA are currently assessing weather conditions to determine the next opportunity for undocking.
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