14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the entire Expedition 31 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) spent its time loading items that are no longer needed into the unmanned Dragon space capsule. These materials will be returned to Earth when the spacecraft undocks form the station tomorrow.
The procedure will take place at 4:05 am EDT (0805 GMT) on May 31. The capsule will be separated from the American-built Harmony module, and taken a safe distance from the station by the Canadarm-2 robotic arm. The arm will then be retired, leaving the vehicle in a stable orbit.
About four hours later, Dragon will begin to reenter Earth's atmosphere, an event scheduled to last about 30 minutes. It will then land safely in the Pacific Ocean, some 402 kilometers (250 miles) off the coasts of California, Space Fellowship reports.
After unloading the supplies the spacecraft delivered, astronauts are now replacing the cargo with experiment hardware and alloy samples processed in microgravity from the Materials Science Research Rack, as well as other items that need to be returned to Earth.