Two orbits into its spaceflight, SpaceX's Dragon capsule has fired its thrusters to begin its descent back through the atmosphere. If the Dragon makes it back for a splashdown off the California coast, its test mission will be considered a full success.
The Dragon is designed to take cargo up to the International Space Station -- and bring cargo back down to Earth as well -- once NASA retires its space shuttle fleet. Today's mission serves as a tryout for those tasks. During the next test flight, planned for next year, a Falcon 9 rocket is due to launch a Dragon toward the station for a rendezvous, and possibly even a docking.
The Dragon's heat shield contains a material known as PICA-X (phenolic impregnated carbon ablator) that is designed to withstand the heat of atmospheric re-entry. SpaceX's millionaire founder, Elon Musk, told me that the protective material should be strong enough to keep a spacecraft from burning up even if it were returning from the moon or Mars. He said it was a bit of "overkill" to use it for this flight -- but we'll see whether the Dragon actually survives.
Meanwhile, SpaceX reports that it has received "telemetry and radar" readings from the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, which is designed to be recovered and reused. In a Twitter update, the company said a recovery boat was "steaming that way" in the Atlantic. SpaceX also said telemetry indicated that the devices designed to deploy two CubeSat nanosatellites as secondary payloads for the Department of Defense, known as P-PODs, were activated as planned.
All in all, it looks like a "nominal" mission so far -- and that's good. Splashdown is expected to come just after 2 p.m. ET.
Stay tuned for updates on the Dragon's maiden space mission by checking Twitter (via @b0yle or @SpaceXer), or checking Cosmic Log's SpaceX coverage.
