spacetoday.net: NASA tentatively confirms April 30 SpaceX launch

Posted: Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 6:56 AM ET (1056 GMT)
SpaceX Dragon illustration (SpaceX)

NASA and SpaceX officials met Monday and gave approval for an April 30 launch of a SpaceX's Dragon mission to the ISS, pending some final tests. After Monday's Flight Readiness Review, NASA officials said the planned April 30 launch of the Dragon mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral "looks good", but that some additional simulations and software reviews still needed to be completed prior to the launch. The launch is currently scheduled for 12:22 pm EDT (1622 GMT) April 30, with a backup day May 3; after that, SpaceX would wait for an Atlas launch from the Cape and a Soyuz flight to the station before trying again in mid-May. The mission, designated "C2+", is designed to combined the second and third demonstration missions of SpaceX's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) award from NASA. The Dragon spacecraft will closely approach and maneuver around the station; if those objectives are achieved, it will berth with the station. Both NASA and SpaceX emphasized that this was a test flight, although the Dragon will be carrying over 500 kilograms of non-essential cargo to the station on this mission.