A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft departed the International Space Station on June 16, 2026, beginning its return journey to Earth after a resupply mission that delivered equipment and consumables to the crew aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The unpiloted Dragon capsule undocked from the station and performed orbital maneuvering to configure a deorbit burn that would bring the vehicle through the atmosphere for a splashdown off the Florida coast. The capsule carried scientific samples collected during the crew’s time aboard the station, including processed biological experiments and hardware being returned for analysis.
SpaceX’s Dragon fleet has operated as NASA’s primary cargo transportation system to the ISS under a series of commercial resupply services contracts. The departure sequence was managed jointly by mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and SpaceX’s operations team in Hawthorne, California.
Recovery vessels were positioned in the planned splashdown zone ahead of re-entry. Following recovery, SpaceX teams would transfer science samples to NASA and partner research institutions within a defined time window designed to preserve integrity of time-sensitive biological specimens collected during the mission.
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Sources:
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-dragon-cargo-capsule-crs-34-return-to-earth