Space X capsule splashes down

Another mission is in the books for the Hawthorne-based company as the cone-shaped Dragon capsule hits the water about 250 miles west of Baja. The vehicle spent more than three weeks docked with the International Space Station, though getting there was a little tougher than anticipated because of a thruster problem. Once the glitch was corrected, news coverage tailed off quite a bit, a sure sign that the Space X missions are getting to be routine. Well, sort of. From the LAT:

The crew of the space station sent the capsule back in the pre-dawn hours for a trip that lasted about five hours. After the capsule reentered Earth's atmosphere, its three main parachutes billowed open about five minutes before splashdown. The orange-and-white-striped parachutes, each 116 feet in diameter, slowed the craft's descent to 16 to 18 feet per second. The craft bobbed in the water until two 24-foot rigid-hull inflatable boats and a 100-foot ship equipped with a crane recovered it. The capsule is set to arrive Wednesday night at the Port of Long Beach. "Recovery ship has secured Dragon. Powering down all secondary systems. Cargo looks A ok," tweeted SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk.