Japanese “white stork” has recently taken flight from the International Space Station.
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) ninth H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV-9, was released from its temporary perch at the end of the space station’s robotic arm on Tuesday (August 18) at 1:36 p.m. 1736 GMT). The unoccupied truck, nicknamed “Kounotori,” or “white stork,” by JAXA, will spend two days in orbit before air traffic controllers in Tsukuba, Japan, order to burn an engine that will send the spacecraft back to the atmosphere of the earth.
Loaded with approximately 7,400 pounds (3,400 kilograms) of used equipment and trash from the space station, the HTV will meet its hot end, succumb to the heat of recharging and burning across the Pacific Ocean.
The de-orbit will mark the end of 11 years of HTV missions.
“Over the past 11 years, the H-II Transfer Vehicle Kounotori has delivered more than 40 tons of cargo, research, hardware and equipment to the International Space Station,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS Program Manager, in a statement issued by NASA. TV from the room. “I want to congratulate Japan on its HTV missions.”
First launched on September 10, 2009, on top of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ first H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, the barrel-shaped HTV was Japan’s first spacecraft to serve a space station and the first unmanned vehicle to launch. was struck on the American segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The 33-foot (10-meter) long and 14-foot (4.4-meter) wide, solar-powered spacecraft was also the first capsule to carry both heavy and unpressurized cargo.
“A white stork carries an image of conveying an important thing (a baby, happiness and other happy things); therefore, it precisely expresses the mission of HTV to transport essential materials to the ISS,” JAXA officials wrote. the space nickname in November 2010.
Following HTV-1, subsequent Japanese spacecraft delivered deliveries to the station in January 2011, July 2012, August 2013, August 2015, December 2016, September 2018, and September 2019. HTV-9 was launched on May 20 (May 21, Japanese time) and was attached five days later to the Earth-facing port of the space station’s Harmony module.
Like the eight cars that preceded it, HTV-9 spent its 85 days at the station, its cargo was unloaded and then repackaged with garbage. After the space shuttle retired in 2011, the Japanese HTV was the only spacecraft capable of delivering and removing the station’s cargo racks. HTV-9 celebrated NASA’s final “Expediting the Processing of Experimental to the Space Station,” as an EXPRESS rack, which provides power, storage, temperature control, data, and transportation for up to 10 research experiments.
HTV-9 also delivered the definitive set of six new lithium-ion batteries that were used to complete the space station’s solar system upgrade this summer. Older, less capable nickel-hydrogen batteries, mounted on a pallet launched on HTV-8, are now being thrown into the unprecedented compartment aboard HTV-9. (The exposed pallet launched on HTV-9 will be jettisoned from the station later.)
In total, the nine Kounotori delivered more than 80,150 pounds (36,356 kg) of scientific equipment and supplies, including 58,513 pounds (26,541 kg) of pressure cargo and 21,636 pounds (9,814 kg) of unpressurized cargo. The cars also dumped nearly 48,000 pounds (21,695 kg) of garbage, including 35,236 pounds (15,983 kg) of pressurized waste and 12,593 pounds (5,712 kg) of unpreserved perforated hardware.
On Tuesday, NASA flight controllers in Houston challenged Canadarm2’s robotic arm to detach HTV-9 from the Harmony node and position it for release. NASA astronaut and Expedition 63 commander Chris Cassidy, assisted by Russian plane Ivan Wagner, then oversaw the departure of the red when it was freed from the grip of the robotic arm and dismantled on board thrusters to to separate them from the round-life laboratory.
“It has been a real honor for the members of Expedition 63 … to welcome HTV, carry out operations there and now be part of its departure on the ninth spaceship of the class. Congratulations to our colleagues and friends at JAXA, “Cassidy said after the HTV reached a safe distance from the space station.
As it progressed, HTV-9 enabled one more experiment, and completed the already successful Wireless LAN Demonstration (WLD). In a first, the HTV sent real-time live images to the space station. The technology could once again support autonomous dockings on future missions, including between cars operating around the moon and Mars.
The HTV is the third type of trying red to retire after flying in support of the ISS program. After NASA’s spacecraft arrived from its last mission in 2011, the European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) flew its fifth and final mission in 2015. The space station is operated by Russian spacecraft Soyuz and Progress, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ship and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Boeing’s Starliner and Dream Chaser of Sierra Nevada are expected to enter service in 2021.
JAXA plans to follow the HTV “Kounotori” with a new, more advanced spaceship, called the HTV-X. The new ship will have greater payload capacity, be able to support cargo that requires power and with a break provided with late additions just before its launch.
Aimed to fly to the station first in 2022, the HTV-X is also considered for flights to the moon, to deliver supplies to the planned Morning Gateway as part of JAXA’s proposed contributions to NASA’s Artemis program.
“HTV is the last Japanese truck of the series, yet this latest departure is the start of a new chapter for our international partner, who is developing it [the] next generation truck, HTV-X, “said JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai of the HTV control room in Tsukuba, Japan.” We have upgraded the capacity of the new car [to] expand our activity in space, not just on the ISS, but above low-Earth orbit. We look forward to HTV-X in the very near future. Until then say goodbye to HTV. “
