For
the last 3 months NASA has been struggling to get supplies and
groceries to the ISS (International Space-station). If all systems
are go an unmanned mission with Space X's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon
capsule will liftoff from cape Canaveral on Saturday morning at 4:47
am EST. The launch will be the fifth attempt, the third by SpaceX, to
get over 5,100 pounds of supplies and groceries to the ISS.
"Certainly,
there's a little bit of disappointment because it had fresh fruit and
those types of things that we're all interested in getting,"
Space station commander Butch Wilmore said in an interview with The
Associated Press after the postponement. "But they'll get off
the ground here in a couple of days and it will all be great."
Once
the rocket has been successfully launch and the first stage separates
SpaceX carry out a feat that has not been attempted with a space
vehicle. They will attempt to land the re-usable rocket on a 300 x
100 foot (91 x 30 meter) platform anchored in the ocean just off the
coast of Florida.
“This
would have an impact on the entire industry,” SpaceX Vice President
Hans Koenigsmann told reporters.
SpaceX
was originally schedule to launch on Dec. 18, 2014 but engine trouble
forced them to scrub the mission and reschedule for Jan. 6, 2015. The
Jan. 6 launch was scrubbed within a minute of launch because of
actuator problems. After that launch was scrubbed it was rescheduled
to take place this morning until it was determed that they would not
have the problem fixed in time so the launch was pushed to Saturday.
The
first two attempts were made by Orbital science Corporation in late
October. The first one was called off when a boat sailed into the
safe zone around the Island of Virginia where the launch was to take
place. The second attempt ending when the unmanned rocket explode
just seconds after it liftoff. An investigation determined that
explosion was cause by a flaw in an engine used on the rocket.
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