SpaceX cargo ship scrapped docking at space station

MELBOURNE, Fla. — An unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship aborted a planned Wednesday morning rendezvous with the International Space Station and will try again Thursday, NASA said.

At 3:25 a.m. EST, less than three hours before the Dragon was to be captured by a robotic arm on the station, Dragon computers automatically rescheduled the approach after its navigation systems recognized something wrong in data about the station's location.

"This is an easily correctable issue," said NASA TV commentator Rob Navias. "Dragon itself is in excellent shape."

► Related:SpaceX launches rocket from historic NASA launchpad

The Dragon and its nearly 5,500 pounds of supplies and science research are now expected to be grappled by the station's 58-foot robotic arm around 6 a.m. EST Thursday.

European astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA's Shane Kimbrough will oversee the capture operations.

Cargo ships are now expected to arrive at the outpost on back-to-back days.

A Russian Progress freighter that lifted off early Wednesday from Kazakhstan is scheduled to dock at the space station at 3:34 a.m. EST Friday.

SpaceX's 10th of 20 missions under a NASA resupply contract blasted off Sunday morning from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A, on the first flight by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the pad that launched Saturn V moon rockets and space shuttles.

NASA did not need the pad after the shuttle program's retirement in 2011, and awarded SpaceX a 20-year lease of the historic site in 2014.

Shortly after Sunday's launch, the rocket's first stage flipped around above the atmosphere and returned to Cape Canaveral for a soft landing.

The landing eight minutes after liftoff was SpaceX’s third of a booster at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, miles down the coast from the launch site.

Follow James Dean on Twitter: @flatoday_jdean