The Dragon capsule at the International Space Station. (File)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (October 28, 2012)--Astronauts aboard the International Space Station released the commercial SpaceX Drago cargo ship Sunday morning.
SpaceX, which tests its rocket motors at its facility in McGregor west of Waco, will steer the unmanned capsule to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred miles off the Baja California coast.
The supply ship is bringing back nearly 2,000 pounds of science experiments and old station equipment.
Perhaps the most precious cargo is nearly 500 frozen samples of blood and urine collected by station astronauts for the past year.
The Dragon is the only commercial delivery ship capable of returning items, now that NASA's shuttles are retired.
SpaceX launched the capsule three weeks ago from Cape Canaveral.
It's the second Dragon to return from the space station.
The first capsule was shipped here after a successful test mission.
