VOA NewsLast updated on: March 03, 2013 6:38 AM— The privately-owned unmanned Dragon cargo spaceship is ready to dock with the International Space Station after engineers fixed a problem that delayed the docking by one day.
Dragon was captured by the space station's robotic arm early Sunday in preparation for docking.
The spacecraft, owned and operated by SpaceX, ran into problems shortly after liftoff Friday. Minutes after the launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk reported that three of the craft's four sets of thrusters had not activated normally. Engineers were later able to get all four working.
Dragon is scheduled to remain at the station for three weeks, as part of SpaceX's second resupply mission there.
The capsule is carrying science equipment, food and spare parts for the station's six-person crew, and will return to Earth later this month with samples, specimens and other items.
NASA has contracted the California-based SpaceX to carry out at least 12 resupply missions to the space station in the next several years.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida Friday morning on a resupply mission for the U.S. space agency, NASA.
"T-minus 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (roar) and liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. Space X continues America's mission to resupply the International Space Station - from U.S. soil!"
Dragon is scheduled to make a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on March 25, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
The SpaceX company's first successful docking was in May, and it began routine commercial resupply missions in October. Since the termination of NASA's space shuttle program, the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft have been the only U.S. vehicles capable of ferrying cargo -- and eventually crew -- to the space station.
