SpaceX's Dragon space capsule launched into space today, March 1, 2013, toward the International Space Station on its second cargo mission for NASA. It launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 10:10 a.m. ET. Space.com reports that a thruster problem "has engineers scrambling to identify the cause, forcing a delay in the spacecraft's arrival at the International Space Station by at least a day."

  • peregrinus

    Yay!  Space exploration go!  Boo! Thruster issue.

    I am so utterly psyched by this!

    • euansmith

       Go! Go! SpaceX Dragon!

  • Fantome_NR

    watch out, Elon Musk might get upset if you call it a thruster problem.

    • Jake0748

       Yeah. Did they drive it around the space parking lot for too long?

    • kaplanfx

      On the contrary he was completely forthcoming about this, and has been open about other issues when they occur as well.  His history makes me tend to trust him rather than some anti-electric oil shill NYT blogger.

      • Fantome_NR

        ^^^ no sense of humor

        • kaplanfx

          Rather, it’s hard to tell sarcasm on the internet, I will er on the side of defending Musk, we need more people like him who take their fortunes and actually invest in risky difficult projects.

          • hypnosifl

            It wasn’t really sarcasm, it was a sex joke. You clearly don’t watch enough Bond movies!

          • euansmith

            In the words of Sean Connery, “Schocking…”

        • chorizo

          There’s never any need to point out that Tesla fanboys are humorless.

          • http://twitter.com/j0nny5 Jon Rodriguez

            And yet, you felt the need to, Sausage.

          • peregrinus

             I liked the delicate interplay between your screen name and the transalation of “chorizo” to “sausage”.

            It spoke much to my sentido del humor, if google serves, as it should.

    • SamSam

      Damnit! I read the article and thought “Elon Musk…. oh yeah…” and rushed to make the first witty. A half hour late.

      Hat-tip.

      • Fantome_NR

        great minds snark alike.

  • oasisob1

    Reportedly they tried liftoff during suboptimal conditions.

    • euansmith

       I think that optimal conditions will be around 2050, when they get anti-gravity.

      • oasisob1

        Well it’s already 2230 here, and no anti-gravity yet. Maybe by 2050 in your time zone?

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/6JNAPS4YHMFRMGPROCIAAWZWD4 RobertR

    Probably ice from water vapor in the oxidizer line.  I worked at Pratt & Whitney back in the day and they had an upper stage failure that they traced to water vapor.  When you chill the engines down to liquid oxygen temperatures, the water vapor freezes and blocks the fuel or oxidizer lines.  When P&W built the rockets they would dry them in an oven and then weld them up in a container to keep them dry, but even a pin-hole leak was enough to cause the failure if they were left long enough.

    • Marius van Voorden

      So you’re saying, they forgot to solve the icing problem?

  • http://www.facebook.com/bruce.an.395 Bruce Kyu An

    Some people are so quick to criticize on small oops. let them try it and show how perfect they are themselves. They should think and learn about how engineering marvels are continuous string of fine small details. Surely different than sitting on couch sipping beers and ridicule other people’s sleepless achievement. Hooray, Elon Musk…. I have a lot of respect for the young pioneer who struggles carry on not much left American technology.