The Dragon cargo ship was about a mile from the ISS when the docking procedure was aborted early Wednesday morning. NASA confirmed in a status report that both the Dragon and the ISS crew are safe, reports TechCrunch.
The aborted docking is a first for SpaceX. The space company has been transporting supplies to the space station since 2012. The cargo ship will make a second attempt at docking on Thursday says SpaceX. The Dragon is carrying over 5,500 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of supplies and science experiments
Reuters is reporting that NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said the cargo mission to the $100 billion space laboratory was aborted at 3:25 a.m. EST (0825 GMT) Wednesday when the computers aboard the Dragon detected an error in the GPS navigation system.
“At no time was the station or the crew in any danger,” Navias said during NASA TV coverage of the planned docking. “Dragon did exactly what it was supposed to do and broke out of its approach.”
A Russian cargo ship carrying almost 6,000 pounds (2,72 kilograms) of supplies was launched atop a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan just a few hours earlier on Wednesday. The Russian cargo ship is expected to arrive at the ISS on Friday. Japan also sends cargo ships to the space station.
