14 DAY TRIAL // The Dragon space capsule returned from the International Space Station on May 31, reentering Earth's atmosphere in about 30 minutes after being placed on its descent course. This image provided by the spacecraft's manufacturer shows the strain reentry placed on the vehicle.
The unmanned capsule is shown here aboard a barge that retrieved it from a location several hundred miles off the coasts of Baja California, Mexico. Dragon splashed down at 11:42 am EDT (1542 GMT).
This was the first orbital resupply mission carried out by a private spacecraft. The vehicle and its launch system, the Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket, were developed by Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX).
The company designed and built the vehicle under a $1.6 billion Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract with NASA. The agreement calls for SpaceX to conduct 12 resupply flights to the ISS over the coming years. The company is also working on a manned version of the spacecraft.