A SpaceX supply ship rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday, setting the stage for an Easter morning delivery today and urgent spacewalking repairs later in the week.
Following its midday launch through cloudy skies, the Dragon cargo carrier was shown drifting away in the blackness of space, against the blue backdrop of Earth.
It is transporting 2.3 tonnes of goods, including a new spacesuit, spacesuit replacement parts, much-needed food, legs for a NASA robot, a bevy of mating flies and germs gathered from sports arenas and historic sites across the US.
Photo: AFP
Neither NASA nor SpaceX packed any Easter goodies, but the families of the six astronauts sent private care packages.
“It will be a surprise for all of us when they open the hatch,” NASA human exploration chief Bill Gerstenmaier said.
The Dragon is scheduled to reach the orbiting lab today. That pushes urgent spacewalking repairs to Wednesday; NASA wants a bad backup computer replaced before something else breaks.
This was the second launch attempt this week for SpaceX after a month’s delay.
On Monday, NASA’s commercial supplier was foiled by a leaky rocket valve. The valve was replaced, and the company aimed for a Friday liftoff despite a dismal forecast. Storms cleared out of Cape Canaveral just in time.
SpaceX’s billionaire chief executive officer, Elon Musk, was delighted with the successful launch for NASA, the client.
“This was a happy day,” he told reporters from company headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
On Friday last week, a critical backup computer failed outside the space station, and NASA considered postponing the SpaceX flight. The primary computer is working fine, but numerous systems would be seriously compromised if it broke too. A double failure also would hinder visits by the Dragon and other vessels.
“It’s imperative that we maintain” backups for these external command-routing computer boxes, also called multiplexer-demultiplexers, or MDMs, flight director Brian Smith said on Friday. “Right now, we don’t have that.”
NASA decided late this week to use the gasket-like material already on board the space station for the repair, instead of waiting for the Dragon and the new, precision-cut material that NASA rushed onboard for the computer swap. Astronauts trimmed their own thermal material on Friday to fit the bottom of the replacement computer and inserted a fresh circuit card.
The space station’s crew watched the launch via a live TV hookup; the outpost was soaring 418km above Turkey at the time of ignition. Video beamed down from Dragon showed the solar wings unfurling.
The shipment is close to five weeks late. Initially set for the middle of March, the launch was delayed by extra prepping, then damage to a US Air Force radar and, finally on Monday, the rocket leak.
Earlier, as the countdown entered its final few hours, NASA’s space station program manager Mike Suffredini said an investigation continues into the reason for last year’s spacesuit failure. The helmet worn by an Italian astronaut filled with water from the suit’s cooling system, and he nearly drowned during a spacewalk.
Routine US spacewalks are on hold until engineers are certain what caused the water leak. The upcoming spacewalk by the two Americans on board is considered an exception because of its urgent nature; it will include no unnecessary tasks, just the 2.5-hour computer swap.
NASA is paying SpaceX — Space Exploration Technologies Corp — and Virginia’s Orbital Sciences Corp to keep the orbiting lab well stocked. It was SpaceX’s fourth trip to the space station. Russia, Japan and Europe also make periodic deliveries.
Unlike the other cargo carriers, the Dragon can bring items back for analysis.
Among the science samples going up on the Dragon and slated to return with it in a month: 200 fruit flies and their expected progeny and germs collected from stadiums and sports arenas, as well as from such notables as America’s Liberty Bell and Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil skeleton at Chicago’s Field Museum.
Scientists are to study the hearts of the returning flies — as many as 3,000 are expected for the trip home. The germ samples, once back on Earth, will be compared with duplicate cultures on the ground.
Staying up there — for as long as the space station lives — will be new legs for NASA’s humanoid, Robonaut. The indoor robot has been in orbit for three years, but only from the waist up.
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
Hundreds of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Friday denouncing gentrification caused by foreigners, with some vandalizing businesses and shouting “gringos out!” The demonstration in the capital’s central area turned violent when hooded individuals smashed windows, damaged restaurant furniture and looted a clothing store. Mexico City Government Secretary Cesar Cravioto said 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged in what he called “xenophobic expressions” similar to what Mexican migrants have suffered in other countries. “We are a city of open arms... there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table,” Cravioto told Milenio television. Neighborhoods like Roma-Condesa
‘CONTINUE TO SERVE’: The 90-year-old Dalai Lama said he hoped to be able to continue serving ‘sentient beings and the Buddha Dharma’ for decades to come The Dalai Lama yesterday said he dreamed of living for decades more, as the Buddhist spiritual leader prayed with thousands of exiled Tibetans on the eve of his 90th birthday. Thumping drums and deep horns reverberated from the Indian hilltop temple, as a chanting chorus of red-robed monks and nuns offered long-life prayers for Tenzin Gyatso, who followers believe is the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Looking in good health, dressed in traditional maroon monk robes and a flowing yellow wrap, he led prayers — days after confirming that the 600-year-old Tibetan Buddhist institution would continue after his death. Many exiled Tibetans
Dozens of residents have evacuated remote islands in southern Japan that have been shaken by nearly 1,600 earthquakes in recent weeks, the local mayor said yesterday. There has been no major physical damage on hardest-hit Akuseki island, even after a magnitude 5.1 quake that struck overnight, said Toshima Mayor Genichiro Kubo, who is based on another island. However, the almost nonstop jolts since June 21 have caused severe stress to area residents, many of whom have been deprived of sleep. Of the 89 residents of Akuseki, 44 had evacuated to the regional hub of Kagoshima by Sunday, while 15 others also left another
RSS