A SpaceX launch to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for Sept. 20, has been postponed to Sept. 21, due to bad weather.
A Dragon spacecraft is packed with food and supplies for space travelers, along with a 3D printer that will become the first of its type ever placed into space.
Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket is re-scheduled for 1:52 a.m. EDT. The weather report 24 hours before the attempt predicts a 40 percent chance of favorable conditions.
If successful, this will be the fifth flight for the Dragon spacecraft, designed and manufactured by California-based aerospace company SpaceX. It will also mark the fourth flight of the vehicle for NASA, supplying goods to space travelers. In 2010, the private space developers became the first to bring supplies to the orbiting station.
"The spacecraft is loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, science experiments, and technology demonstrations including critical materials to support 255 science and research investigations during the station's Expeditions 41 and 42," NASA officials wrote in a press release announcing the launch delay.
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which brings the Dragon spacecraft to orbit, is powered by nine Merlin LOX/RP-1 engines in its first stage and one in its second stage. The spacecraft itself is the only one in the world that cannot only bring supplies to the station, but also bring supplies and experiments back to the Earth.
The Dragon spacecraft is over 19 feet long and 12 feet wide, and can be pressurized for certain tasks, such as carrying live organisms to space. When the vehicle arrives at the ISS, it is captured by the robotic arm connected to the orbiting outpost. When Dragon returns to Earth, it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, to be recovered for re-use.
The ISS-RapidScat instrument is also on board Dragon, ready to be flown to the ISS. This orbiting observatory will monitor ocean winds, replacing the QuickScat Earth Satellite.
The ISS is currently housing a six-person international crew.
SpaceX was founded in 2002, by PayPal developer Elon Musk, who also operates automobile manufacturer Tesla Motors. Musk and his team recently won a two-billion dollar contract from NASA to develop the Dragon V2 capsule, which will be capable of ferrying people to the space station. That vehicle could be ready for testing by the year 2017. One of the company's largest competitors, Boeing, won a four-billion dollar award from the space agency, for development of the CST-10, their planned human space vehicle.
