spacetoday.net: Falcon 9 cleared for launch to ISS Monday

Posted: Mon, Apr 14, 2014, 6:50 AM ET (1050 GMT)
NASA officials approved plans to launch a Dragon cargo spacecraft on a Falcon 9 Monday afternoon despite the failure of a backup computer on the ISS. The launch of the Dragon spacecraft on its third Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the station is scheduled for 4:58 pm EDT (2058 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral. NASA approved the launch plan after concluding there was sufficient redundancy among station systems after a backup computer mounted on the station's exterior malfunctioned on Friday. ISS operations are going normally despite the failure, and station managers concluded that even if there was another failure on the station, there were sufficient backups to allow Dragon to launch, rendezvousing with the station on Wednesday. A spacewalk to replace the failed computer is tentatively planned for April 22. The Dragon is carrying supplies and new experiments to the station. The launch was previously scheduled for March 30 but postponed by a tracking radar failure at the Cape.