SpaceX Aborts Dragon Cargo Vehicle Capture; Proceeds With Arrival Today on Space Station

By Ana Verayo, | February 23, 2017

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is pictured arriving in April 2014 during Expedition 39. (NASA)

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is pictured arriving in April 2014 during Expedition 39. (NASA)

The International Space Station has been delayed of its precious supply cargo from SpaceX since its delivery was aborted on Wednesday, February 22 due to a glitch on the cargo vehicle's GPS system. SpaceX's Drago cargo capsule was launched last Sunday from the historic NASA Kennedy Space Station and is now successfully in lower Earth orbit.

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According to SpaceX flight controllers, the decision to abort the cargo delivery was triggered by an incorrect state vector or a set of numbers that pinpoints the spacecraft's orbit and current trajectory. The Dragon capsule will now dock Thursday morning and unload its 5,500 pounds of supplies and scientific equipment and experiments after a reset. The spacecraft is now operating normally from a safe distance from the orbiting space laboratory while SpaceX engineers and flight controllers proceed with the robotic arm will attempt to capture at the ISS.

According to Rob Navias of NASA's Johnson Space Center mission control in Houston, the commercial cargo ship, SpaceX Dragon capsule has aborted its rendezvous but is now proceeding today, Thursday. Despite this, the rendezvous maneuvers and engine firings from the launch at the Kennedy Space Center were all perfect through early hours of Tuesday morning.

However, on 3:25 a. m. EST, Navias revealed that a SpaceX report from the mission director stated that the Dragon aborted its approach of the International Space Station due to a filter on the GPS hardware that pinpoints the relative position of Dragon. During the time that the delivery was aborted, the Dragon was almost a mile below the space station and was beginning to rise up to the lab to be captured by a robotic arm controlled by European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet. 

Navias says that at no time was the crew member in any danger and the Dragon executed what it should do and canceled this approach with a racetrack maneuver by going around the space lab. Mission control also said that an incorrect vector than the navigation system should be reset for another rendezvous attempt. As of writing, NASA has proceeded with this capture Thursday morning, where you can watch the live feed here.

 

The Dragon capsule is carrying 3,150 pounds of supplies and equipment with 580 pounds of food and clothing. This also included 842 pounds of spare parts and hardware along with 1,600 pounds of science equipment and experiments.

There are also 20 mice on the cargo vehicle for a study on how to regrow limbs or tissue as well as a deadly bacteria known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) to study how bacteria mutates, to design more effective drugs. There is also a US $92 million ozone monitoring instrument and a $7 million lightning sensor aboard the Dragon cargo capsule.

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