It’s been orbiting the Earth for over a month, but Genes in Space winner Alia Al Mansoori’s experiment has safely returned from its journey to the International Space Station.
Several hours after undocking, the Dragon capsule survived the heat of re-entry to splashdown safely in the Pacific just off the coast of California late on Sunday.
.@Astro_Paolo and @AstroKomrade released @SpaceX #Dragon with Canadarm2 at 4:40am ET today for return to Earth. https://t.co/5rHQlLLgWo pic.twitter.com/PhQkutEWdN
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 17, 2017
SpaceX, the private company that launched the mission reported “Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed” at 07.17 local time and five hours after it was undocked from the ISS.
Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing its 12th mission to and from the @Space_Station.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 17, 2017
After astronaut Peggy Whitson completed the Dubai teenager’s experiment, it was packed in dry ice ready to be sent back to the 15-year-old.
Following its recovery, the experiment will be first flown to Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston and then to Boston.
Only then will Alia be reunited with her experiment and find out what changes the time in space has had on her samples. The Al Mawakeb school pupil, who aims to be the first Emirati astronaut, hopes to discover how space travel might affect DNA.
