Early Sunday, a SpaceX cargo vehicle was released by the International Space Station filled with 3,800 pounds of science experiment results and samples including discarded equipment and trash. The cargo spaceship re-entered Earth's atmosphere and successfully splashed down the Pacific Ocean after staying a month in lower Earth orbit.

Like Us on Facebook

SpaceX's Dragon capsule has been bringing supplies for astronauts such as food and water and scientific equipment, experiments, and tools. It is also the only cargo ship that can go back and forth to the International Space Station and bring back science samples and other material to Earth. The Dragon capsule completed its journey back to Earth and safely landed at 10:46 A.M. EST some 230 miles southwest of Long Beach, California.

Dragon is headed to port for a cargo handover to @NASA. https://t.co/C3Pix9DGAg pic.twitter.com/wPdFTlsNsP

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 19, 2017

Prior to this splash down, recovery crews were already stationed nearby to reel in the spacecraft back to port. Science samples from the Dragon capsule are considered as highest priority and will be turned over to NASA.

A few hours earlier before the release of Dragon, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet said to mission ground control, it's time to say goodbye to Dragon as the space station's robotic arm released the cargo vehicle. Pesquet adds, there is a part of the crew that will come back to Earth and I mean that literally since it carries a lot of very important scientific samples and some are obtained directly from the crew here.

Pesquet explains, scientists cannot wait to get their hands on these results and thanks to return vehicles like the Dragon, the ISS can fulfill crucial scientific discoveries in space. The Expedition 50 thanks everyone and congratulates all the teams involved for this CRS-10 mission.

This marks the 10th cargo resupply mission of SpaceX to the space station from more than two dozen under NASA worth US $2 billion. Apart from these, SpaceX also has a contract to develop and build a Dragon capsule to bring astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station.