SpaceX and NASA have delayed the following Dragon cargo launch to the International Space Station by two additional days, to Nov. 9.
The robotic SpaceX mission, often known as CRS-29, had originally been scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Sunday evening (Nov. 5). On Wednesday (Nov. 1), nonetheless, the planned launch was pushed back to Nov. 7, to offer more time for prelaunch processing.
And we just got word of one other two-day delay, which can allow for “completion of ultimate prelaunch closeout ahead of liftoff,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Thursday evening (Nov. 2).
If all goes based on the brand new plan, the Dragon will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 8:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 9 and arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) early on the morning of Nov. 11.
This latest delay is said to a problem with certainly one of the Dragon’s Draco thrusters.
“In the course of the initial propellant load in preparation for the CRS-29 mission, teams identified a leak of NTO (nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer) in a Draco thruster valve, which per standard procedure required a pause to the operation to troubleshoot. The team inspected the valve and respective data, and decided to interchange the thruster,” NASA officials wrote within the Thursday evening update.
“SpaceX continues to maintain NASA informed throughout the method, and the joint team collectively decided to shift launch to account for the initial part alternative and subsequent system checkouts and data reviews,” they added.
As its name suggests, CRS-29 is the twenty ninth business resupply services mission that SpaceX will fly to the ISS for NASA. Dragon is full of about 6,500 kilos (2,950 kilograms) of supplies and scientific hardware for the trip.
Among the many science gear is a two-way laser array that may test high-speed communications in low Earth orbit, a NASA experiment designed to review disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere and a European Space Agency investigation that would improve water recovery on the ISS.
Dragon is certainly one of three robotic spacecraft that currently haul cargo to the orbiting lab. But it surely’s the one one which may return gear from the ISS to Earth. Dragon is reusable, but the opposite two freighters — Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle and Russia’s Progress craft — are designed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when their time in orbit is up.