CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A space station cargo ship will remain Earthbound for a while longer.
With just more than an hour remaining on Monday, the SpaceX company called off the planned launch because of a rocket leak. A launch date was not set; the next opportunity would be on Friday.
Officials said a helium leak in the first-stage of the unmanned Falcon rocket forced the postponement.
During the weekend, NASA almost postponed the launch because of a computer outage at the International Space Station. But it decided on Sunday that everything would be safe for the arrival of the Dragon capsule and its 2½ tons of supplies.
The computer, a critical backup, failed outside the space station on Friday as flight controllers were trying to activate it for a routine software load.
It's the first breakdown of one of these so-called space station MDMs, or multiplexer-demultiplexers, used to route computer commands for a wide variety of systems. Forty-five MDMs are scattered around the orbiting lab. The failed one is outside and will require spacewalking repairs.
The Dragon capsule holds a gasket-like material for next week's computer replacement. This material was rushed to the launch site during the weekend and loaded into the Dragon.
