Astronauts sealed the hatch to the SpaceX Dragon capsule on Wednesday. It's loaded with 1,400 pounds of experiments and old equipment for return to NASA.

In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, the astronauts will use the station's robot arm to release the Dragon. The spacecraft will aim for a splashdown in the Pacific later in the morning, about 500 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

The California-based SpaceX is the first private business to launch a spacecraft to the orbiting complex. NASA wants to use the capsule to restock the station's pantry and eventually ferry station astronauts. AP