The first commercial vehicle to visit and replenish the space station, has splashed down in the Pacific, six hours after undocking from its berth there. Crews are now standing by to retrieve the capsule bobbing in the ocean hundreds of miles west of Baja California.

The 19-foot-long, gum-dropped shaped Dragon spacecraft brought back with it, 1,400 pounds of old gear, marking another first. The craft is the first vehicle to bring gear back from the space station since the retirement of the United State’s shuttle system.

The space Station’s robotic arm pulled the Dragon from its docking port at 9:49 am Pacific time and positioned it for release. After a series of burns the Dragon moved away from the station and began its descent. The final burn slowed the craft down to 224 miles per hour to allow its orbit to decay and begin its 3,000 degree descent through the atmosphere.

The descent of the Dragon was guided by SpaceX to its splashdown off of the coast of Mexico. It will now be barged back to Los Angeles, where it will be loaded and hauled by truck back to the SpaceX rocket factory in Texas. It parachuted back to earth after its progression through the upper atmosphere in the old-style used by Gemini,Mercury and Apollo missions.

“Dragon smoothly undocked, moved out, released and on its way home,” Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers reported on Twitter.

The Dragon was the first private, commercial craft to dock to and supply the space station after its lift-off from Cape Canaveral last week. The spacecraft spent five days, 16 hours and 5 minutes docked to the space station.

The founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, Tweeted the capsule’s return on Twitter, saying, “Splashdown successful!”

The success of this initial mission will now open the way for SpaceX to begin its orbital cargo deliveries this year. SpaceX has a total of 12 flights scheduled though 2016. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to do just that.

Musk expects to have astronauts riding his craft in three or four years time.

SpaceX is due to launch its next vehicle in September.