Those experiments and more will be returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida to be delivered to scientists, SpaceX said in a statement.
The spacecraft wrapped up its mission after just over a month in space, allowing Expedition 66 spaceflyers to receive fresh food and supplies from Earth on Dec.22, a day after launch, before the crew filled up the spacecraft with science to return home.
The splashdown was initially targeted for the wee hours of Monday morning local time, but two days of bad weather at potential splashdown locations in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast prevented the departure at first, according to SpaceX. ."Expedition 66 wishes the Dragon well on its return," NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn radioed Mission Control from the station, on behalf of Expedition 66, shortly after the undocking.The target location was close enough to NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Space Coast (an hour east of Orlando) to rapidly return science experiments that need to be kept refrigerated!