Concluding a busy five week mission, the SpaceX Dragon CRS-4 commercial cargo ship departed the International Space Station (ISS) this morning, Oct. 25, after delivering a slew of some 2.5 tons of ground breaking science experiments and supplies that also inaugurated a new era in Earth science at the massive orbiting outpost.
Dragon was released from the snares of the station's robotic arm at 9: 57 a.m. EDT while soaring some 250 mi (400 km) over the northwest coast of Australia.
'The Dragon is free!' exclaimed NASA commentator Rob Navias during a live broadcast on NASA TV. 'The release was very clean.'
The private resupply ship was loaded for return to Earth with more than 3,276 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples from the station crews investigations on 'human research, biology and biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities sponsored by NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the nonprofit organization responsible for managing research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station' said NASA.
The release set up a quick series of three burns by the ships Draco thrusters designed to carry Dragon safely away from the station.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Butch Wilmore quickly retracted the arm working from their robotics workstation in the domed Cupola module.
'Thanks for the help down ther,' the astronauts radioed. 'It was a great day.'
The first burn took place a minute later at about 9:58 a.m. EDT and the second at about 10:00 a.m. A yaw maneuver at 10:05 a.m. set up the orientation required for the third burn at about 10:08 a.m.
Dragon moved away quickly during the nighttime release and was already outside the Keep Out Sphere (KOS), an imaginary bubble surrounding the station at a distance of 200 m. It disappeared quickly in the dark and was barely visible within minutes.
'The propulsion systems are in good shape,' said Navias. 'All systems on Dragon are functioning perfectly.'
With Dragon safely gone following the trio of burns, the next major event is the deorbit burn set for 2:43 p.m. EDT at a distance of about 90 statute miles from the station.
Dragon will slip out of orbit. After surviving the scorching heat of reentry through the Earth's atmosphere, the ship will sequentially deploy its drogue chutes and three main parachutes at about 3:30 p.m.
Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is expected at about 3:39 p.m., approximately 265 miles west of the Baja peninsula.
Dragon is the only vehicle that can return intact from the ISS with a substantial load of cargo and was carrying critical science samples for distribution to researchers.
Today's Dragon departure starts a week of heavy traffic of comings and goings to the ISS involving a series of US and Russian unmanned cargo ships.
The Orbital Sciences Antares rocket with the commercial Cygnus cargo freighter is set to launch on Monday, Oct. 27, from NASA Wallops, VA. It will dock at the ISS on Nov. 2 at the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module just vacated by Dragon.
Russia's Progress 56 unmanned cargo ship will also undock on Oct. 27. And Progress 57 will launch from Baikonur on Wednesday, Oct 29.
The SpaceX Dragon CRS-4 cargo resupply mission thundered to space on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 21.
Dragon was successfully berthed at the Harmony module on Sept. 23, 2014.
Dr. Ken Kremer is a speaker, scientist, freelance science journalist (Princeton, NJ) and photographer whose articles, space exploration images and Mars mosaics have appeared in magazines, books, websites and calanders including Astronomy Picture of the Day, NBC, BBC, SPACE.com, Spaceflight Now and the covers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines. Ken has presented at numerous educational institutions, civic & religious organizations, museums and astronomy clubs. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and NASA Wallops on over 40 launches including 8 shuttle launches. He lectures on both Human and Robotic spaceflight - www.kenkremer.com. Follow Ken on Facebook and Twitter
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