Word I got from folks on-center (KSC) is that they orbital thrusters have failed to fire properly. They're getting the recovery team together and there is talk of de-orbiting.
Yeah they only had 1 of 4 thrusters. They got 2 of 4 back online, but apparently need 3 to berth with ISS. They could burn to the ISS on 2 from what I understand, but couldn't fully berth, or not berth safely from the sound of it. So they are trying to get the remaining two thrusters online before making the call to burn for the ISS. Mission is still in limbo. And yes, if they can't get it online and decide to abort, they would burn back for a calculated de-orbit and recovery which is a backup plan, but would mean the mission was a failure. Lot of conflicting information flying around right now about this.
From Elon on twitter a few minutes ago: Looks like they're good to go.4:04 p.m. ET: Thruster pods one through four are now operating nominally. Preparing to raise orbit. All systems green. 2:57 p.m. ET: Pods 1 and 4 now online and thrusters engaged. Dragon transitioned from free drift to active control. Yes!! 12:01 p.m. ET: Attempting bring up of thruster pods 2 and 4 11:49 a.m. ET: Solar array deployment successful 11:38 a.m. ET: Thruster pod 3 tank pressure trending positive. Preparing to deploy solar arrays. 11:12 a.m. ET: About to pass over Australia ground station and command inhibit override 11:04 a.m. ET: Holding on solar array deployment until at least two thruster pods are active 10:40 a.m. ET: Issue with Dragon thruster pods. System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override. 10:32 a.m. ET: Falcon 9 delivered Dragon to its target orbit. All good on the rocket.
Was just coming back here to post this as well. Sounds like their meetup with the ISS will be delayed, but they are back in business and will still make berth. CRS-1 they lost an engine on the rocket but still made it to the ISS, this time the rocket was fine but the capsule had issues and they will still make their mission albeit with a slight delay. Good thing they are working the kinks out now, and I think its a testament to their engineering that these malfunctions have all been something that hasn't stopped the mission as a whole. I was getting all of my updates from here, but the same content. Most of it being sourced from Elon Musk's twitter feed.