Washington: Carrying almost 3,100 pounds of critical NASA cargo from the International Space Station (ISS), the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft has made a splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

The cargo includes research on how spaceflight and microgravity affect the ageing process and bone health.

The spacecraft was successfully released from the ISS’s robotic arm on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement.

The capsule then performed a series of departure burns and maneuvers to move beyond the 200-metre “keep out sphere” around the station and begin its return trip to the Earth.

“Spaceflight-induced health changes, such as decreases in muscle and bone mass, are a major challenge facing our astronauts,” said Julie Robinson, NASA’s chief scientist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

We investigate solutions on the station not only to keep astronauts healthy but also to help those on the Earth who have limited activity as a result of aging or illness, he added.

The returning “Space Aging” study examines the effects of spaceflight on the ageing of roundworms, widely used as a model for larger organisms.

By growing millimetre-long roundworms on the space station, researchers can observe physiological changes that may affect the rate at which organisms age.

This can be applied to changes observed in astronauts, as well, particularly in developing countermeasures before long-duration missions.

Also returned on Dragon were samples to observe the effects of microgravity on the function of osteocytes, the most common cells in bone.

Understanding the effects of microgravity on osteocytes will be critical as astronauts plan for future missions that require longer exposure to microgravity, including the NASA’s journey to Mars.

Equipment and data from the Special Purpose Inexpensive Satellite (SpinSat) investigation also made the trip back to the Earth.

Researchers can use high-resolution atmospheric data captured by SpinSat to determine the density of the thermosphere, one of the uppermost layers of the atmosphere.

With better knowledge of the thermosphere, engineers and scientists can refine satellite and telecommunications technology, NASA said.