SpaceX Dragon demo capsule returns to Earth

America's new commercial astronaut capsule has completed its demonstration flight with a successful splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The SpaceX Dragon vehicle left the International Space Station after being docked there for the past week, and re-entered Earth's atmosphere. It had a heat-shield to protect it from the high temperatures of re-entry. Four parachutes brought it into "soft contact" with water about 450km from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission - which had no humans aboard, only a dummy covered in sensors - went according to plan. More

(Source: BBC News - Mar 8)