Japan Successfully Launches New Resupply Craft on H3 Rocket

Tanegashima, Kagoshima Pref., Oct. 26 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, successfully launched an H3 rocket carrying the first unit of the newly developed HTV-X resupply vehicle on Sunday. The seventh H3 rocket was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, at 9 a.m. The resupply vehicle was put into the target orbit about 14 minutes after the liftoff and will head for the International Space Station. The HTV-X will deliver food and other supplies as well as equipment for experiments to astronauts stationed at the ISS. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, now at the ISS, is slated to catch the craft with a robot arm shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday Japan time. The HTV-X is the successor to Kounotori. A total of nine units of Kounotori successfully reached the ISS between 2009 and 2020. In addition to being capable of carrying up to 5.8 tons of cargoes, up about 50 pct compared with the payload of Kounotori, the new resupply vehicle can fly for up to a year and a half after being released from the ISS, allowing it to be used for experiments in orbit. Carried by the first HTV-X unit are fresh food, water and other supplies, as well as a small exposed experiment platform to be installed outside Japan’s Kibo module at the ISS and a carbon dioxide removal device to be tested by JAXA for its future lunar and Martian explorations. The HTV-X will remain at the ISS for up to six months. After leaving the ISS, it will release a microsatellite and will be used for experiments, including on laser ranging and a thin and lightweight deployable antenna related to space debris countermeasures, before re-entering the atmosphere in about three months. As the HTV-X is about 8 meters in height and weighs up to about 16 tons, larger and heavier than a conventional satellite, the seventh H3 rocket is equipped with four solid rocket boosters, compared with two for previous units. The HTV-X was developed at a cost of about 35.6 billion yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]