NASA hopes to deliver 2.5 tons of vital station supplies to the International Space Station today and has scheduled a 3:25 p.m. launch.
But inclement weather may delay the trip once again, The Associated Press reported. NASA tried to launch the Dragon commercial supplier on Monday, but the mission had to be postponed after problems with a leaky rocket valve, which has since been replaced.
The cargo ship holds food for the astronauts living on the ISS as well as a new spacesuit and extra replacement parts for spacesuits. The Dragon's most important supply is needed material to repair a backup computer that failed last Friday, according to the AP.
The astronauts plan to conduct a spacewalk and fix the computer during the next few days.
Even though NASA announced that it was suspending most work with Russia in light of the Ukraine conflict, the American space agency has renewed a contract with Russia to transport U.S. astronauts to the ISS, according to The Washington Post.
In exchange for six seats on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and other for the mission, the U.S. is handing over $457.9 million to Russia in spite of continuing sanctions.
After the American space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, the U.S. has been dependent on Russia to transport NASA astronauts to the ISS.
Earlier this month, the U.S. space agency appealed for more funding to become independent of Russian ties.
"NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space," said a NASA blog post shared on Google+. "This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration's for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches--and the jobs they support--back to the United States next year."
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