SpaceX Postpones Launch to Space Station Until Friday

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SpaceX scrubbed Monday's scheduled launch of a robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station, due to a helium leak on the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage.

Word of the postponement came a little more than an hour before the Falcon 9 was to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

NASA said that the next opportunity for launch would come at 3:25 p.m. ET Friday.

Photographers focus on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as it sits on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday.

"A fix will be implemented by the next launch opportunity ... though weather on that date isn't ideal," SpaceX said in a status update.

Forecasters had put the chance of acceptable weather for launch at 80 percent for Monday, but only 40 percent for Friday.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule is packed with about 4,600 pounds (2,100 kilograms) of supplies and equipment for the station. This is the third of 12 round-trip resupply flights that SpaceX is conducting under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

Billionaire's grand vision

This particular mission is notable because it's the first time the Falcon 9 has been outfitted with a set of four landing legs. The 25-foot-long (7.6-meter-long) foldable legs are part of a long-term experiment to see whether the Falcon 9 rocket can be recovered and reused.

This time around, the legs won't play a useful role. They're just part of a test to relight the rocket engines after stage separation and ease the first stage's fall into the Atlantic Ocean, so that it can be recovered intact by a SpaceX team.

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SpaceX Postpones Launch to Space Station Until Friday

Space station launch Monday despite dead computer

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) A space station cargo ship will remain Earthbound for a while longer.

With just over an hour remaining, the Space X company called off Monday's planned launch because of a rocket leak. A new launch date was not set; the next opportunity would be Friday.

Officials said a helium leak in the first-stage of the unmanned Falcon rocket forced the postponement. The launch already had been delayed a full month for various reasons.

Over the weekend, NASA almost postponed the launch because of a computer outage at the International Space Station. But it decided Sunday that everything would be safe for the arrival of the Dragon capsule and its 2 tons of supplies.

The computer, a critical backup, failed outside the space station Friday as flight controllers were trying to activate it for a routine software load.

It's the first breakdown ever of one of these so-called space station MDMs, or multiplexer-demultiplexers, used to route computer commands for a wide variety of systems. Forty-five MDMs are scattered around the orbiting lab. The failed one is located outside and therefore will require spacewalking repairs.

The Dragon capsule holds a gasket-like material for next week's computer replacement. This new material was rushed to the launch site over the weekend and loaded into the Dragon.

NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steven Swanson will perform the spacewalk next Tuesday regardless of whether the Dragon flies by then. It will take several days to get the replacement computer ready for installing, thus the one-week wait before the job, NASA's Kenny Todd, a station operations manager, said Monday.

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of California is one of two American companies hired by NASA to fill the cargo gap left when the space shuttles retired in 2011. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia is the other.

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Space station launch Monday despite dead computer

Russia Celebrates Cosmonautics Day

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RIA Novosti

Published: April 14, 2014 (Issue # 1805)

Yury Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in the world, remained a down-to-earth and approachable person to the end of his life. Photo: AP

Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day every April 12. This holiday was instituted by the April 9, 1962 executive order of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet (Parliament) in honor of the first manned space flight.

On April 12, 1961, a launch vehicle orbited the Vostok spacecraft with the first cosmonaut, Soviet citizen Yury Gagarin, on board.

After circling the Earth once, the spacecrafts descent module landed in the USSR. The cosmonaut ejected at an altitude of several kilometers above the ground and parachuted into a field at 10.55 am Moscow Time. He landed on the bank of the Volga River near the village of Smelovka in the Ternovsky District of the Saratov Region.

The flight lasted 108 minutes, and the launch of the worlds first manned spacecraft was supervised by Sergei Korolev, Anatoly Kirillov and Leonid Voskresensky.

This history-making event paved the way for space exploration for the benefit of the entire humankind. New opportunities in space were created in 2000 when the first crew boarded the International Space Station (ISS), a joint space project involving 15 countries.

The station is tracked 24 hours a day from the Russian Federal Space Agencys Mission Control Center in Korolev near Moscow and NASA's Mission Control Center at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Since the start of its operation, the ISS has gradually turned into a huge laboratory in near-Earth space.

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Russia Celebrates Cosmonautics Day

SpaceX delays delivery launch to International Space Station

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May 22, 2012: The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. This launch marks the first time, a private company sends its own rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.AP Photo/John Raoux

A space station cargo ship will remain Earthbound for a while longer.

With just over an hour remaining, the Space X company called off Monday's planned launch because of a rocket leak. A new launch date was not set; the next opportunity would be Friday.

Officials said a helium leak in the first-stage of the unmanned Falcon rocket forced the postponement. The launch already had been delayed a full month for various reasons.

Over the weekend, NASA almost postponed the launch because of a computer outage at the International Space Station. But it decided Sunday that everything would be safe for the arrival of the Dragon capsule and its 2 1/2 tons of supplies.

The computer, a critical backup, failed outside the space station Friday as flight controllers were trying to activate it for a routine software load.

It's the first breakdown ever of one of these so-called space station MDMs, or multiplexer-demultiplexers, used to route computer commands for a wide variety of systems. Forty-five MDMs are scattered around the orbiting lab. The failed one is located outside and therefore will require spacewalking repairs.

The Dragon capsule holds a gasket-like material for next week's computer replacement. This new material was rushed to the launch site over the weekend and loaded into the Dragon.

NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steven Swanson will perform the spacewalk next Tuesday -- regardless of whether the Dragon flies by then. It will take several days to get the replacement computer ready for installing, thus the one-week wait before the job, NASA's Kenny Todd, a station operations manager, said Monday.

SpaceX -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of California -- is one of two American companies hired by NASA to fill the cargo gap left when the space shuttles retired in 2011. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia is the other.

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SpaceX delays delivery launch to International Space Station

Dining Pioneer Red Lobster Looking at Future Challenges

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Published: Monday, April 14, 2014 at 2:40 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, April 14, 2014 at 2:40 p.m.

Jerry Prescott, 48, has been going to the seafood chain since he first moved to Lakeland at age 16, dining at the restaurant chains very first location along U.S. 92 in Lakeland.

I love Red Lobster, Ultimate Feast every time fish, lobster tail, crab legs, broccoli, shrimp, the whole nine yards, he said.

But ask Prescotts daughter Christine Chandler, 25, to pick a spot, and Red Lobster isnt her first choice.

I dont like seafood or the smell of seafood, but I go to spend time with my family, she said.

This disconnect between younger and older diners is one example of the problems Red Lobster faces as it heads into the future.

In December, Darden Restaurants, the Orlando-based parent company of Red Lobster, announced it would separate from the seafood chain by midsummer. This spinoff is the result of many factors:

Revenue declines over several years.

Stagnant growth

Growing number of dining alternatives that appeal to younger diners.

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Dining Pioneer Red Lobster Looking at Future Challenges

Jessica Simpson Stuns in Short, Sunny Yellow Dress, Shows Off Super-Fit Figure: Picture

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Little Miss Sunshine! Jessica Simpson was a bright spot on the red carpet at the John Varvatos Stuart House Benefit on Sunday, April 13, in West Hollywood, where she turned heads in a short, canary yellow dress by Yigal Azrouel.

PHOTOS: Jessica's body evolution

The sexy, slim-fitting frock showed off the 33-year-old Weight Watchers spokeswoman's super-fit figure and toned, muscular legs. She paired it with sky-high white platform Saint Laurent heels and simple silver jewelry.

PHOTOS: Jessica's family album

The mom of two (to daughter Maxwell, 22 months, and son Ace, 9 months) officially reached her post-baby weight-loss goal last month. To commemorate the milestone, she shared a photo of herself in a curve-hugging Alexander McQueen dress, writing: "First time rocking a white dress this year...but not the last! Thanks @weightwatchers!" She also posted a picture of herself wearing a simple white T-shirt, hashtagging it "#goalreached."

PHOTOS: Jessica's second pregnancy

The fashion mogul famously struggled to lose weight after her first pregnancy back in 2012, but she saw results pretty quickly after giving birth to Ace last June. "This body made two amazing little human beings. I love this body and what it's capable of -- no matter what size," she said in a Weight Watchers ad earlier this year. "But this version feels really good."

In another ad the next month, she added: "I have a newfound determination that I'm really proud of. I can honestly say I've never been happier."

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Jessica Simpson Stuns in Short, Sunny Yellow Dress, Shows Off Super-Fit Figure: Picture

NASA OKs space station visit despite dead computer

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASA is pressing ahead with Monday's planned launch of a supply ship despite a critical computer outage at the International Space Station, promising the situation is safe.

Mission managers decided Sunday to proceed with the countdown for the SpaceX capsule, Dragon, already a month late in delivering more than 2 tons of cargo.

"We're good to go," said NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini.

Suffredini noted the many important supplies aboard the Dragon, including a new spacesuit and repair parts for the older spacesuits already in orbit. Much-needed food is also packed away.

"There's a certain amount of urgency to go ahead and get these vehicles" at the space station, he told reporters. These shipments have to fit around other space station operations, like crew comings and goings.

"Things start to bunch up," Suffredini said, "and so we're just trying to fly as soon as we safely can, which is what we believe we're doing."

This backup computer, located on the outside of the space station, mysteriously failed to work when activated Friday. The main computer kept operating perfectly, and the six-man crew was never in any danger. NASA debated whether to delay the SpaceX mission and, on Sunday, determined the station has sufficient redundancy to safely support the visiting vessel.

A spacewalk will be required, meanwhile, to replace the bad computer. Engineers don't know why it failed.

Suffredini said the spacewalk will be conducted by a pair of astronauts on April 22, using suits outfitted with new fan components to avoid the near-disaster that occurred last summer. An Italian astronaut almost drowned when his helmet flooded with water from the suit's cooling system.

An April 22 spacewalk will give SpaceX two chances to get its unmanned Dragon capsule flying. Good weather is forecast for Monday's 4:58 p.m. launch. If that doesn't work, the next launch attempt for the California company's Falcon rocket would come Friday.

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NASA OKs space station visit despite dead computer