Delayed Description of Dragon Duplicated Delivery to Distant Digs (CRS-2)

This is incredibly late in coming, but here is a short note about SpaceX's second cargo delivery to the ISS via a Dragon spacecraft. This actually took place in March of this year (The craft launched on March 1st, 2013 and splashed down on March 26th, 25 days later). This mission featured thruster problems that delayed the Dragon's arrival to the ISS by 2 days. The thruster issue came down to a blockage in the helium pressurant line running to the Nitrogen Tetroxide tank. Cycling a valve cleared the blockage and the mission continued without incident. The Dragon delivered 2400 pounds of supplies to the station and returned to earth with 3000 pounds of cargo. Dragon is unique in the cargo delivery market in that it can both supply and return cargo to/from the ISS. The completion of CRS-2 marked the third successful Dragon delivery to the ISS, and the fourth successful flight of the Dragon spacecraft.

The next supply mission for Dragon is slated for November 11th, 2013.