The first private spaceship, the Dragon, which undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, has landed in the Pacific Ocean.
The Dragon’s bell-shaped capsule plunged into the water about 400 nautical miles (740 km) southwest of Los Angeles at 19:42 Moscow time (15:42 GMT).
After the spacecraft, which brought from the ISS some 660 kg of redundant items, is fetched from the water it will be loaded on a vessel and taken to a port in Los Angeles. From there it will be delivered to SpaceX headquarters in Texas.
The Dragon cargo spaceship is owned by U.S. company SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), which took four years to design it. In December 2010, the Dragon made its first flight into orbit and then successfully landed in the Pacific.
The second Dragon was launched on May 22 from Cape Canaveral. On May 25, it docked with the ISS after a series of tests.
The United States has been without its own transportation to the station since the 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 intention of buying rides for its cargo - and eventually astronauts - on commercial vehicles, a far cheaper alternative, IOL said.
