SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to return to Earth with supplies

A SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday and return to Earth with supplies and scientific experiments, according to NASA, reported Xinhua.

Dragon will undock from the space station's Harmony module at 9:05 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the ISS after receiving a command from ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, U.S. state of California.

After re-entering Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida.

Dragon will carry back to Earth more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments designed to take advantage of the space station's microgravity environment, according to NASA.

Dragon launched on Nov. 9 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The spacecraft arrived at the ISS on Nov. 11 as SpaceX's 29th commercial resupply services mission for NASA, delivering about 6,500 pounds of research investigations, crew supplies, and station hardware.