SpaceX Dragon Capsule Splashes Down in Pacific

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsules are targeting two-person test flights to the space station late next year or in early 2018. “The capsule is now scheduled to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about 11:47 a.m. EDT [15:47 GMT], approximately 326 miles west of Baja California”, NASA said.

On board were 12 mice which travelled up into low-Earth orbit with the Dragon capsule a month ago.

“That research explored how microgravity affects human heart cells and alters gene expression and DNA in mice”.

SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo ship splashed down Friday in the Pacific Ocean, returning a load of NASA research from the International Space Station, the United States space agency said.

SpaceX is the only space station shipper capable of returning items for analysis back to Earth.

The astro-mice that hitched a ride aboard the Dragon are a part of two separate studies, both aimed at learning how changes in mouse models might be indicative of how the human body will behave in future spaceflight missions.

This is the ninth commercial mission Space-X has conducted for NASA. Another mouse trial focused on rapid loss of bone and muscle mass and testing an antibody known to work in helping to prevent muscle wasting in mice on Earth, NASA said.

About spending a little over a month on ISS, Dragon splashed down in Pacific Ocean at 11:47 a.m. EDT southwest of Baja California with more than 3,000 pounds of NASA cargo, science and technology demonstration samples. Researchers may be able to identify bacterial or metabolic biomarkers that could be useful for astronaut health management, and therefore future human exploration of the solar system.