SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported that a recovery ship in the Pacific Ocean has obtained the Dragon capsule, which safely returned to Earth today after a three-week mission at the International Space Station.
"Recovery ship has secured Dragon. Powering down all secondary systems. Cargo looks A ok," said Musk in a Tweet at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Musk kept running Twitter commentary, retweeted by the official SpaceX feed for the duration of the return mission, which was delayed by one day due to unfavorably high seas at the recovery point off the Baja Peninsula.
If conditions were unsuitable for return March 26, the Dragon's return would have been pushed back to April 1.
Splashdown occurred on schedule on Tuesday, 12:34 p.m. EST (9:34 a.m. PST).
"SPLASHDOWN! At 9:34am PT, #Dragon splashed down safely in the Pacific. Welcome home!" tweeted the official SpaceX account.
The Dragon capsule was taken into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 1, docking with the ISS on March 3 after a day's delay due to thruster problems.
The Dragon capsule is loaded with 2,668 pounds of cargo from the ISS, including several experiments relating to microgravity, including how the force affects the growth of plant seedlings, changes the human body, and affects the behavior of semiconductors and detergents.
Also among the Dragon's cargo is an advanced cooling system called the GLACIER freezer, which contains samples that have been in cold storage at the ISS since the Dragon capsule was last there in October of last year; a previous GLACIER freezer lost power due to water intrusion when the Dragon splashed down last year, according to a report.
More photos of the Dragon's reentry and recovery can be found here
The crane-equipped barge that recovered the Dragon will return to the Port of Los Angeles before being loaded onto a truck and hauled to SpaceX's facility in McGregor, Texas.
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