SpaceX Cargo Launch Is 'Good to Go' Despite Space Station Glitch

Monday's scheduled launch of a robotic SpaceX cargo craft to the International Space Station will proceed despite the failure of a backup electronics box for the station's truss system, NASA says.

Mission managers said they would be able to work around the problems caused by the faiure. "We're good to go," Michael Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, said during a Sunday news conference.

Suffredini said a spacewalk to replace the box is being planned for April 22, after the SpaceX delivery.

SpaceX, a California-based company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver supplies and other payloads to the space station. For the next supply mission, about 4,600 pounds (2,100 kilograms) of cargo has been packed inside a Dragon capsule for launch atop a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Liftoff is scheduled for 4:58 p.m. ET Monday, with the chances of acceptable weather set at 80 percent or better. The only concern is the potential for increasing clouds at the launch site.

Redundancy recovered

The electronics box, known as a modulator-demodulator, failed to respond to commands on Friday and NASA determined that it had to be replaced. The box serves as the backup for another modulator-demodulator that's operating normally. Either box can be used to send commands to components on the space station's main truss, including the robotic arm's rail car system, the station's external cooling system and the movable joints for the power-generating solar arrays.

Suffredini said the main concern about going ahead with Monday's launch was to keep the station's solar arrays in the proper position while avoiding a conflict with the Dragon's arrival and berthing. Astronauts will have to use the station's robotic arm to bring the unmanned capsule in for its berthing on Wednesday, and if both boxes were out of commission, that would have affected the ability to move the arrays.

"We're able to essentially get back the redundancy we need."

NASA planners found a way to keep the arrays in a fixed position during the Dragon's visit, Suffredini said.

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SpaceX Cargo Launch Is 'Good to Go' Despite Space Station Glitch