Dragon private ship is about to return to Earth

Dragon, the first private spacecraft to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), will return to Earth in a few hours.

ISS machine arm caught the Dragon ship on May 25 before the two objects joined.

The astronauts in the ISS closed the door connecting the Dragon train yesterday. The spacecraft will return more than 600kg of old equipment. Before the sun rises this morning in US time (this afternoon in Vietnam time), astronauts will use the robotic arm to separate the ship from the station. The ship will fall into the Pacific Ocean. The fall is about 900km southwest of Los Angeles, AP reported.

Dragon's successful connection with ISS on May 25 is an historic event, marking the opening of a new era in the history of human exploration of the universe. This is the first time a private ship connects to the space station. SpaceX, the Dragon's airship manufacturing group, became the first private enterprise on the planet to launch space into space. After Dragon's flight, the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) will sign a contract with SpaceX for the group to carry out at least 12 flights to ISS. Contract value is up to 1.6 billion USD.

NASA hopes that the private sector will take charge of transporting goods and people to ISS in the future so that the US government will focus its money on space exploration programs farther than Earth's orbit. NASA's upcoming goal is Mars and meteorites.