SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon 2 that flew the CRS-21 mission launched on December 6th of last year, splashed down on January 14th at 01:26 UTC in the Gulf of Mexico, west of Tampa, Florida. The automated cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 14:05 UTC on January 12th carrying 2,002 kilograms of cargo.

The undocking was delayed by a day due to poor weather in the primary recovery zone in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Daytona Beach.

Splashing down closer to Florida allowed SpaceX to return time-sensitive cargo to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center within just four to nine hours, compared to previous Dragon cargo missions that splashed down off the coast of Baja California in the Pacific Ocean taking several days to return to NASA.

This marked the first return of a Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft. The new Cargo Dragon 2 is based on the Crew Dragon, but with a different pressure vessel to accommodate additional volume. Cargo Dragon 2 lacks the SuperDraco engines used for the Crew Dragons because it does not require the launch escape system and getting rid of them allows for more space in the capsule. However, Cargo Dragon 2 retains the fins on the Crew Dragon trunk. This is because changing the aerodynamics of the capsule is a major change. The fins also provide space for solar panels and radiators, necessary for spacecraft function.

Among the cargo returned were live mice from the Rodent Research 23 experiment and a dozen bottles of space-aged French wine. The wine bottles went up to the ISS on a Cygnus supply ship in late 2019 and spent more than a year on the International Space Station. Some of the bottles will be opened for a very exclusive tasting, while others will be analyzed to determine how it aged after more than a year in microgravity.

There were also 320 cuttings of grapevines as part of a privately-funded experiment led by Space Cargo Limited based in Luxembourg to learn how the plants adapted to the stresses of spaceflight. The knowledge learned from this experiment could provide insight into how to grow grapes in harsher environments on Earth.

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