Slowly but surely, the International Space Station releases the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The Dragon spaceship spent three weeks at the orbital outpost, and is now ferrying back equipment samples key to ongoing scientific research.
The capsule, built and operated by the private company SpaceX, separated from the ISS early on Tuesday morning.
It is scheduled to parachute down into the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico about 5 and a half hours later.
A recovery ship will then retrieve the capsule and ferry it back to the Port of Los Angeles.
Dragon is transporting over 1,200 kg of cargo back to Earth, including a freezer filled with biological samples for medical research.
