On the night of November 8th, at 9:30 PM, SpaceX Dragon is ready for re-entry into the atmosphere, and Pensacola is chosen as the best place for splashdown. At 9:33 PM Dragon could be seen on the coast of northwest Florida and a sonic boom could be heard from miles away.

   Veteran astronauts Robert L. Behnken and Douglas Harley embarked on a five-month journey into space. Robert L. Behnken is a former United States air force veteran boasting about 30 days in space.

   Douglas Harley, the spacecraft commander, is also a military veteran and he piloted the space shuttle twice in the past.

   The space mission was only a routine cargo resupply mission to the ISS. It carried over 7,000 pounds of crew supplies, vehicle hardware, and research equipment after a perfect first launch from the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocked in Kennedy Space Station.

   Manager of the International Space Station Office for Systems Engineering and Integration Jeff Arend told NASA and SpaceX, “The vehicle that delivered our crews did an excellent job of transporting our crews safely to and from the International Space Station, but the cargo capacity is extremely limited.

   He went on to say, “We can’t conduct all the science we do, and provide for our crew members without our cargo resupply vehicles. Our cargo resupply flights are vital in maintaining and fully utilizing or space laboratory.”

   NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Association) said that the second commercial resupply launch will include science and research equipment such as new pharmaceuticals for treating kidney disease, as well as a study of cotton plant roots to try and identify a plant that uses less water and pesticides.

   It will also contain two new arrays, part of an ongoing project to maximize the life of the ISS.The new missions are all part of a new cargo resupply agreement between NASA and Space X. The new agreement is that SpaceX will send ship to the ISS filled with cargo under NASA.

   The Dragon stayed docked at the international space station for one month, then with 5,300 pounds of research and cargo, came splashing down of the coast of Florida.

   This mission marked the first time that a privately owned venture sent astronauts to the international space station, and it was the first time since 2011, when the space shuttle missions ended, U.S. astronauts ascended into space from American ground.