Or, it could mean that they gain control of the spacecraft, but that the Fregat engine still will not ignite, yet the much less powerful propulsion units designed to land the craft on Phobos and propel the return capsule back to Earth are working fine.

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Cargo will be unloaded, return cargo loaded in, and the capsule will return to splash down in the Pacific.

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Once in flight, the plane will disengage from its capsule and return to the ground, while the capsule launches multistage booster rockets to propel it into space orbit or to the International Space Station.

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The return home is not a smooth transition from weightlessness to 1-g for astronauts that return home via the Soyuz capsule.

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Constellation would have developed a heavy lift launch vehicle, crew capsule, and other technology needed to return astronauts to the Moon, and then eventually carry them on to Mars.

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With Return to Paradise, temptation takes the form of a Prozac capsule rather than the apple of knowledge.

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We also reached a critically important milestone in May when SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft -- the Dragon cargo capsule -- to the International Space Station and return it with cargo intact.

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The capsule, called Foton-12, was launched on September 9th and is due to return on September 25th.

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That demonstration saw the capsule berth with the ISS - the first commercially designed and built vehicle to do so - and then return safely to Earth.

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