SpaceX capsule docks with space station on 2nd try

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A navigation error forced SpaceX to delay its shipment to the International Space Station on Wednesday, following an otherwise smooth flight from NASA’s historic moon pad.

Following after the successful launching of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, what are the things to be expected for this mission?

SpaceX Dragon cargo craft’s rendezvous to the space station was aborted early Wednesday morning after the spacecraft’s computers received an incorrect navigational update, triggering an automatic wave off.

The cargo ship was within 0.7 miles of the ISS before aborting its docking attempt.

This is SpaceX’s first mission from the Kennedy Space Center since one of its rockets blew up a year ago. “A flawless vehicle for SpaceX, as it arrived right on time”. The spacecraft backed off while SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, Calif., assessed the issue, figured out what was wrong and rescheduled a second attempt Thursday.

This time, the Dragon cargo ship made a “perfect approach to the capture point”, a Nasa commentator said, and was grabbed by the station’s robotic arm. It is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews.

The docking has been rescheduled for Thursday morning.

“The Dragon will deliver about 5,500 pounds of supplies to the space station, such as Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument to further study ozone in the atmosphere”. That set up today’s meeting, which comes just one day before a Russian resupply rocket is slated to arrive early Friday. The two companies were planned to start transport missions during 2017, but the launch systems didn’t get certified yet.