Photos: Falcon takes flight

Four astronauts strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to a fiery pre-dawn splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, closing out the first operational flight of SpaceX’s futuristic touch-screen ferry ship.

Ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center were packing last-minute cargo into a commercial Dragon supply ship Sunday, a day before the automated freighter is set for liftoff on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a two-day trek to the International Space Station.

In this week’s edition of News from the Press Site, Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Mike Wall, Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com; and Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space.