SpaceX’s Dragon is set to return to Earth with experiments and samples from the International Space Station

June 28 (UPI) — The SpaceX Dragon cargo shuttle is set to lift off from the International Space Station on Thursday to deliver six years of NASA experiments and samples.

is a spaceship Scheduled to depart from the ISS’s Harmony module at 12:05 p.m. EDT Thursday under the command of ground controllers in Hawthorne, California.

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Provided by NASA Live coverage Dragon’s takeoff begins Thursday at 11:45 a.m. EDT.

On the return trip, the spacecraft will carry more than 3,600 pounds of equipment, supplies and science experiments, some of which have been on the space station for nearly six years with final orbital tests completed earlier this year.

Experiments returning to Earth include the European Space Agency’s Grip Dexterous Manipulation in Microgravity chair, which investigates how microgravity affects the manipulation of objects by astronauts.

Gravitational cues for sensorimotor performance: The Reaching and Grasping (GRASP) experiment, which examines the effects of microgravity on the human nervous system, will also be carried aboard Dragon.

In addition to the experiments, Dragon will carry monoclonal antibodies, myotonins and samples from the BioNutrits-2 probe back to Earth.

Dragon initially launched from the Kennedy Space Center on June 5, and after repeated delays arrived at the station on June 6 carrying more than 7,000 pounds of equipment and experiments, including two International Space Station roll-out solar arrays.

It is scheduled to make a parachute splash down on the Florida coast around 2:30 a.m. on Friday. NASA will bring these experiments to their Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center.