Dragon Hatch Opens At 553 Am Saturday

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit and Joe Acaba of NASA and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers opened the hatch to SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft and entered the vehicle Saturday, May 26, 2012 one day after the world's first commercial cargo spacecraft was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module. "Like the smell of a brand new car," said NASA astronaut Don Pettit, after going inside of the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The compartment was brilliantly white and, he noted; clean, no dirt or other particles appeared to be floating around.Dragon will remain berthed to the ISS Harmony module until Thursday, May 31, 2012, enabling the crew to unload supplies for the station's residents before it is re-grappled and released to return to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California. Dragon will return with a limited amount of cargo from the International Space Station.Dragon carried up 1,000 pounds of food, clothes, batteries, student science experiments and other provisions. It will bring back 1,400 pounds' worth of gear.