Cape Canaveral - The first privately developed ship to travel to
the International Space Station returned home on Thursday,
completing a pioneering mission for commercial firms seeking a
major role in space travel. Riding beneath three parachutes, the
bell-shaped SpaceX Dragon capsule ended a nine-day space flight
and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 900km west of Baja,
California, at 4.42pm South African time. Dragon, built and
flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, returned
home with cargo from the $100 billion space station, where it
had spent the past six days. “It really couldn’t have gone
better,” SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk said. “I’m
overwhelmed with joy.” The US has been without its own
transportation to the station, a project of 15 nations, since
its space shuttles were retired last year. Rather than build and
operate a government-owned replacement, Nasa is investing in
companies such as SpaceX, with the aim of buying rides for its
cargo – and eventually astronauts –