SpaceX Trying Launch to ISS Again

Posted May 22nd, 2012 at 12:50 am (UTC-5)
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A privately-owned company will make another attempt Tuesday to send a supply capsule to the International Space Station.

The Falcon-9 rocket carrying the Dragon space capsule, built by U.S.-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the pre-dawn hours .

The rocket was about to blast off Saturday when the launch was aborted at the last half-second. SpaceX says computers detected slightly high pressure inside the central engine of its Falcon 9 rocket. Engineers traced the problem to a faulty valve that has now been replaced.

After three days, the Dragon capsule will reach the ISS, and will be sent through a series of maneuvers before it docks with the orbital outpost. The six-member crew of the space station will then spend the next two weeks unloading over 500 kilograms of supplies from the capsule.

The reusable Dragon capsule will then return to Earth with used equipment.

SpaceX is attempting to become the first privately-owned company to launch a spacecraft to the ISS. The U.S. space agency NASA is hoping that SpaceX and other commercial enterprises will be able to replace the retired space shuttle fleet to ferry cargo and, eventually, astronauts to the ISS. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is the only vehicle currently able to send astronauts to the space station.