Space X Dragon Returns to Earth With 3,500 Pounds of NASA Cargo

Space X's Dragon spacecraft returned from the International Space Station at 3:05 p.m. EDT Sunday. The craft brought around 3,500 pounds of NASA cargo and scientific samples from the orbiting laboratory.

The spacecraft, which is owned by California-based Space Exploration Technologies, completed a 28-day mission at the ISS before parachuting into the Pacific Ocean May 18.

Steven Swanson, the current commander at ISS released the capsule using a robotic crane at 9:26 a.m. ET.

"Thanks to everybody who worked this Dragon mission; it went very well," Swanson radioed to the ground, USA Today reported. "It's also very nice to have a vehicle that can take your science equipment, and maybe someday even humans, back to Earth."

At 3:05 p.m. EDT Sunday, the commercial spacecraft crashed into the Pacific some 300 miles off the coast of Baja, California, Mashable reported.

A boat near the site carried the Dragon spacecraft to a port near Los Angeles, NASA said. "The space station is our springboard to deep space and the science samples returned to Earth are critical to improving our knowledge of how space affects humans who live and work there for long durations," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, according to a statement. "Now that Dragon has returned, scientists can complete their analyses, so we can see how the results impact future human-space exploration or provide direct benefits to people on Earth."

Dragon was launched from Earth April 18 and docked at ISS two days later, on Easter Sunday. The cargo ship had carried 3,500 pounds (1,600 kilograms) to the station, Associated Press reported.

The science samples brought by the craft include samples from biology, biotechnology and human research conducted on the orbiting laboratory.

"While some of this data can be obtained by on orbit analysis, many analysis techniques have not been miniaturized or modified to allow them to be performed on orbit, which means sample return is the only way to obtain this data," said Marybeth Edeen, space station research integration office deputy manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, in an earlier news release.

One of the samples brought back by the capsule is from an experiment that looked into gene expression changes in microgravity. This experiment was conducted using E. coli.

Space X manufactures and develops rockets. The company has a 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract with NASA, nbcnews had earlier reported.