CAPE CANAVERAL – A SpaceX Dragon unmanned freighter arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday after a two-day trip initially marred by steering thruster trouble.
Operating the outpost's 57.5-foot robotic arm, U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford latched onto the commercial spacecraft at 5:31 a.m. EST, about an hour ahead of schedule. The two craft were flying 253 miles above northern Ukraine at the time.
"That was a brilliant capture," NASA astronaut Kate Rubins said from Mission Control in Houston. "We'd like to congratulate you on a job well done."
Alluding to the thruster trouble, Ford offered his congratulations to SpaceX and NASA.
"As they say, it's not where you start, it's where you finish, that counts, and you guys really finished this one on the mark."
Ford was assisted by U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency. The three are scheduled to berth the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module about 8:40 a.m., but work was proceeding ahead of schedule.
Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Dragon is carrying more than a ton of supplies and scientific research equipment.
Three of its four steering thruster pods failed to activate properly after it reached orbit, threatening to scuttle the cargo delivery mission. However, SpaceX engineers were successful in fixing the trouble and continuing the mission. A planned arrival at the station on Saturday was pushed back a day.
The Dragon also is capable of returning cargo to Earth. About 2,600 pounds of experiment samples and other gear will be brought back aboard the spacecraft, which is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California on March 25.
The cargo delivery mission is the second of 12 planned under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.
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