Dragon had spent 5 days, 16 hours and 5 minutes berthed to the orbiting station, while astronauts unloaded 1,200 pounds of cargo, including commemorative patches and pins, 162 meals and a collection of student experiments.
Most of the cargo’s weight, 674 pounds, was in food and crew provisions, such as meals, crew clothing and batteries and other pantry items, TG Daily said.
“It really couldn’t have gone better,” SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk told reporters. “I’m just overwhelmed with joy.”
The test flight will likely clear SpaceX to begin working on its 12-flight, $1.6 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the station.
A second commercial freighter, built by Orbital Sciences Corp , is expected to debut this year. Orbital has a similar contract valued at $1.9 billion to deliver space station cargo.
