Dragon capsule on course for space station rendezvous

The SpaceX rocket lifts off Sunday, October 7, marking the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. It was the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the station. People watch as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon capsule are readied for launch Sunday in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On May 22, SpaceX launched a successful test flight that attached a spacecraft to the International Space Station. It was the first company to do so. Dragon's recovery team poses in front of the first commercial capsule to reach orbit and return safely to Earth. The Falcon 9 rocket launches on May 22 in Cape Canaveral. This image shows how Dragon returns to Earth, under parachutes, to splashdown in the ocean, much like the spacecraft of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The Falcon 9 rocket awaits May's launch date. The first Dragon capsule to make it into orbit and return to Earth was launched in December 2010. Here, crews haul the charred capsule out of the ocean. SpaceX's Falcon 9, carrying a Dragon space capsule, launches from Cape Canaveral in December 2010. This rendering of the Dragon capsule shows the craft's solar panels fully extended. The capsule launched in May extended its panels in orbit. SpaceX's capsule to begin docking with International Space Station on Wednesday morning Dragon capsule is on schedule despite one of its nine booster rocket engines failing Capsule will spend about 18 days at the ISS and bring back scientific experiments (CNN) -- SpaceX's Dragon capsule is just hours away from an on-schedule meeting with the International Space Station. The crew of the space station will use a robotic arm to "grapple" the spacecraft, which is filled with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts, at 7:17 a.m. ET Wednesday, a written statement from SpaceX said. The time could change, the company said, and the capsule will pause three times for go/no-go checks using information from its close-range guidance systems before berthing. About two hours after it is captured, the unmanned capsule will be bolted into place for its two-and-a-half-week stay. After the resupplies are pulled off, astronauts will reload the craft with scientific experiments and failed equipment that can be repaired and sent back. SpaceX launched the first commercial space cargo mission on Sunday night. But a minute and 19 seconds after the Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, one of the nine Merlin engines that power the rocket "lost pressure suddenly," the company disclosed Monday. The rocket "did exactly what it was designed to do," as its flight computer made adjustments to keep the Dragon headed into the proper orbit. California-based SpaceX said earlier that controllers are reviewing flight data in an effort to figure out what happened to the booster rocket, but initial readings indicate the No. 1 engine fairing broke apart under stress. Sunday's launch was the first of a dozen freight runs SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, is slated to make to the station under a contract with NASA, which plans to turn much of its focus toward exploring deep into the solar system. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called it "a critical event in space flight." SpaceX, meanwhile, is looking beyond just cargo flights to developing a human-rated version of the Dragon that would carry astronauts to the ISS. It's one of three companies, along with Sierra Nevada and aerospace giant Boeing, that NASA has chosen to work on the project. And within the next few months, Orbital Sciences is expected to fly its own demonstration flight to the space station. Instead of using Cape Canaveral as its launch site, the company's rocket will take off from Wallops Island, off the coast of Virginia. Orbital has a nearly $2 billion contract with NASA for station resupply missions.