The Space X cargo ship carrying approximately 5,500 pounds of NASA supplies stopped its approach midway yesterday due to an apparent GPS error. However, docking was tried again this morning, and it was safely docked at the international space station after the 24-hour delay. The cargo ship was carrying food items, gear, and equipment for science experiments for the astronauts.
NASA confirmed the report that the cargo ship berthing was aborted last minute due to technical failure with their GPS navigation system. The ship was around 0.7 miles away from the docking station when the mission was called off yesterday.
It was heading towards a grapple, but at around 12:25 a.m. on Wednesday, the computers automatically triggered off due to the problem.
Dragon cargo module arrived three days late
The Space X cargo ship was successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center during the early hours of Sunday. That was 24 hours after the originally planned lift off for Saturday. The initial lift-off was delayed just moments before engine ignition because a problem with the steering system was discovered. With the combination of the two delays, according to NASA’s schedule, the Dragon is three days late in delivery.
NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, who was communicating with the crew from the ground, applauded the news about the Dragon capture and apologized about the delays.
He added that the real work would begin now with the unloading, which is expected to take a month.
The Dragon Space X cargo ship did what it was supposed to do
According to the reports, the Dragon’s computer system received the wrong navigation update that immediately triggered the automatic wave-off. According to Rob Navias, the mission control commentator from NASA, who was at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Space X cargo ship Dragon did exactly what it was supposed to do at that time.
He also added that at no point were the crew or cargo ship in danger.
The space station's 18m robotic arm captured the Dragon space capsule at 5:44 a.m. EST with the help of the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Shane Kimbrough of NASA. Pesquet said that the entire six-member space station crew was very happy to have the Dragon on board.
Space X has multi-year contract with NASA
American aerospace company Orbital ATK and Space X each have contracts with NASA for sending supplies to the International Space Station. Since the discontinuation of the space shuttle program, the ISS has had to rely on the Russian space program to get supplies and astronauts to and from the space station. With the contracts with Space X and Orbital ATK, the United States hopes to become self-sufficient in space flight once again.
Space X is also currently developing a Dragon capsule that is capable of sending astronauts to space. According to the officials from Space X, they were planning to send their first flight with a crew in 2018, but due to some issues with budget and technical problems the hoped for flight has been pushed to 2019.
This is the 10th mission of Space X. Space X is lead by the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and is owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, and so far is the only other entity besides Russia, to get supplies to the space station.
Astronauts will be busy unloading goods from the Space X cargo ship as they are expecting a second shipment of goods on Friday from the Russian Progress cargo carrier.
