The now fully-staffed Expedition 53 crew was busy this weekend preparing  the Dragon spacecraft for the its return to Earth. It arrived at the Station 16 August and its cargo was carefully unloaded and now packed with station gear and science experiments for analysis back on Earth.

The cargo left the International Space Station 17 September 08:40 CEST when ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and NASA Station commander Randy Bresnik released it  from the Harmony module with the support of the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Six hours later the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and has been retrieved together with its science and gear payload.