SpaceX Falcon 9 Launched But Experienced Minor Technical Problem

Commercial space company SpaceX successfully launched its Dragon space freighter on a second resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, but the capsule experienced an issue with its thruster pods, NASA and SpaceX reported.

“SpaceX has confirmed its Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned and experienced a nominal flight,” NASA said in a statement on its website, adding that after Dragon achieved orbit, “the spacecraft experienced an issue with a propellant valve.”

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 10:10 a.m. EST (15:10 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

However just before the Dragon solar arrays were to deploy an anomaly was mentioned. The spacecraft appeared to be in the correct orbit with stage separation accomplished.

Elon Musk tweeted that there is an "issue with Dragon thruster pods. System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override."

Musk further tweeted that they were "holding on solar array deployment until at least two thruster pods are active."

SpaceX then released the following statement "One thruster pod is running. Two are preferred to take the next step which is to deploy the solar arrays. We are working to bring up the other two in order to plan the next series of burns to get to station."

At about the same time as the release was received Musk then tweeted that Dragon was "about to pass over Australia ground station and command inhibit override." And then a little while later Musk tweeted "thruster pod 3 tank pressure trending positive. Preparing to deploy solar arrays."

Shortly after that came the relieving update as Musk tweeted "solar array deployment successful."

After the solar array was deployed SpaceX issued another statement: "After Dragon achieved orbit, the spacecraft experienced an issue with a propellant valve. One thruster pod is running. We are trying to bring up the remaining three. We did go ahead and get the solar arrays deployed. Once we get at least 2 pods running, we will begin a series of burns to get to station."

The Dragon spacecraft is filled with about 1,200 pounds (544kg) of supplies, including supplies to support the 160 scientific investigations that are being performed by station's Expedition 34 crew.

The SpaceX Dragon is scheduled to return with about 2,300 pounds (1043kg) of cargo including important scientific materials, crew supplies and education experiments.

The space freighter is expected to dock with the Earth-facing port of the space station's Harmony module where it will remain for a few weeks while astronauts unload cargo and load the craft with 2,668 pounds (1,210 kg) of Earth-bound experiment samples and equipment. The docking initially scheduled for Saturday may now be delayed. Dragon is currently scheduled to return to Earth on March 25 with a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Baja California.

It is the second of at least 12 flights to the ISS that SpaceX carries out under its $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Last year, the Dragon made a demonstration flight to the space station in May and carried out the first resupply mission in October, delivering more than 1,000 lbs (some 450 kg) of cargo to the ISS.

Dragon’s third mission to the ISS is expected in the fall of 2013. The spacecraft will be launched on board a modernized version of the Falcon 9 rocket.