• Final Dragon 1 completes return to Earth to conclude CRS-20 (NASA Spaceflight)
• NASA TV to Air U.S. Cargo Ship Departure from Space Station (NASA)
• 3D Printing, Biology Research Make the Journey Back to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon (NASA)

Speaking of SpaceX, the last Dragon I capsule returned to Earth yesterday after spending about a month attached to the Nadir port on the Harmony module (aka Node 2) of the International Space Station. Mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, commanded the Canadarm 2 to move the spacecraft into the release position. The command to release Dragon from the robotic arm was issued at 13:06 UTC.

Dragon performed three departure burns under the control of NASA controllers in Houston, using its onboard Draco thrusters. After clearing the ISS, control of Dragon was turned over to SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California.

The deorbit burn was conducted at 17:58 UTC. After shedding the unpressurized trunk, Dragon splashed down off the coast of Baja California, about 815 kilometers south of Los Angeles. It will be returned to the Port of Los Angeles for initial cargo unloading and then transferred to SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas facility to have the remainder of the 4,000 pounds of cargo unloaded.

This marks the end of the CRS-20 missions, which began on March 6th on a Falcon 9 rocket from SLC-40 from Cape Canaveral.