After a delay earlier this month,
SpaceX was scheduled to its third resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 30th. However, the mission, SpaceX-3 (pictured here), has been delayed again due to an electrical short in the tracking radar. According to the
U.S. Air Force:
A mandatory range asset supporting the NROL-67 launch went offline, March 24, 2014. An investigation revealed a tracking radar experienced an electrical short, overheating the unit and rendering it inoperable. The outage resulted in an inability to meet minimum public safety requirements needed for flight, so the launch was postponed.
Initial assessment indicates repair of the tracking radar will take approximately three weeks. The Air Force is evaluating the feasibility of returning an inactive radar to full mission capability to resume operations sooner. The launch schedule impact is to be determined, pending resolution of the anomaly. Early indications are all launches scheduled for FY14 will be supported. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
The launch, originally schedule for March 16, will provide the ISS with a variety of needed items while also delivering and removing scientific cargo. According to
SpaceX, the Dragon cargo includes:
...about 4,600 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support more than150 investigations that will occur during Expeditions 39 and 40. Dragon will carry four powered cargo payloads in its pressurized section and two in its unpressurized trunk, a first for SpaceX. Dragon will return with about 3,600 pounds of cargo, which includes crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, biotechnology,and space station hardware.
Science payloads include the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), which will test the use of laser optics to transfer information to Earth from space; the Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE), a unit capable of producing salad-type vegetables in space; and the T-Cell Activation in Aging experiment that seeks the cause of a depression in the human immune system while astronauts are in microgravity. In addition, the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) investigation includes four high-definition cameras to be placed on the space station’s exterior for use in streaming live video of Earth for online viewing.
Go here for the completed
press kit from SpaceX. You can also stay up to date on the mission via
NASA's SpaceX Blog.
