April 14, 2014: International Space Station Program officials and the international partners and representatives of SpaceX have scheduled the launch of SpaceX- 3, which includes SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo craft on Monday.
After a series of meetings and reviews of procedures, flight controllers, engineers and managers concluded that the SpaceX-3 mission could be conducted as planned, without violating any launch commit criteria despite the loss Friday of a backup computer command relay box called a multiplexer/demultiplexer (MDM) that resides in the station’s S0 truss.
The prime multiplexer continues to operate normally. This pair of MDMs provide commanding to the station’s external cooling system, Solar Alpha Rotary joints, Mobile Transporter rail car and insight into other truss systems.
The engineering teams reported to mission managers that the station possesses enough redundancy to allow the SpaceX mission to successfully launch on Monday from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Space station’s Mobile Transporter will be moved to the proper position on the truss.
After the launch of Dragon’s craft, the station’s solar arrays will also be oriented to the correct angles for the scheduled capture of the US cargo craft on Wednesday and its berthing to the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module.
Space Officials have also planned for a contingency spacewalk by two of the Expedition 39 crew members by the end of April 2014.
Official reports also stated ‘Mission managers approved a plan for the preparation of two of the US spacesuits on the station and the replacement of a fan pump separator on one of the suits prior to the spacewalk.’ The move of the Mobile Transporter rail car to another worksite from its current location will clear the area on the S0 truss for the spacewalking astronauts to gain access to the failed MDM during the planned excursion.
