This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. ET. <\/p>\n
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The private spaceflight company SpaceX says it has restored vital thrusters on its robotic Dragon space capsule in orbit, but the hours of last-minute scrambling to fix the problem mean the cargo ship must delay its arrival at the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
SpaceX and NASA officials say a hardware glitch, which occurred after theDragon spacecraft's launchatop a Falcon 9 rocket early Friday (March 1), prevented the spacecraft from performing vital maneuvers to put it on course for the space station. The spacecraft is hauling nearly a ton of cargo and support equipment to the space station for NASA and was expected to arrive on Saturday. That delivery, however, is delayed for at least a day, and possibly longer, SpaceX officials said. <\/p>\n
\"It's a bit too early for timing,\" SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters in a teleconference after the launch. \"We're definitely not going to rush it.\" <\/p>\n
The Falcon 9 rocket launched on time at 10:10 a.m. ET (1510 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but once the Dragon capsule separated from the booster, the problem arose. <\/p>\n
Three of the four thruster pods on theDragon space capsulerequired to propel the spacecraft to the space station did not activate properly after today's launch, according to officials at SpaceX. A blockage in a line that helps pressurize the thrusters caused a malfunction before the solar arrays the pieces of machinery responsible for powering Dragon to the station could deploy. [Photos: SpaceX's Dragon Launch to Space Station] <\/p>\n
The launch today is the second of 12 flights to the space station planned for Dragon. SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fund these trips. Orbital Science Corp., another private spaceflight organization, was contracted for nine supply trips to the station as well. <\/p>\n
Dragon thrusters back online <\/p>\n
Friday afternoon, Musk explained that after hours of troubleshooting, the four thruster pods are back online and the solar arrays are tracking, powering the capsule according to NASA officials. <\/p>\n
\"There's no leakage or anything like that,\" Musk said. \"There's no debris or fluid or gas leakage that we're aware of. All systems seem to be intact and functioning quite well that we're aware of.\" <\/p>\n
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SpaceX Dragon Capsule Problem Stalls Cargo Trip to Space Station<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. ET. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Continue reading