1st Unit of JAXA’s New ISS Resupply Craft Completes Missions

Tokyo, May 27 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Wednesday it has completed operations of the first unit of its HTV-X series International Space Station resupply spacecraft, which re-entered the atmosphere late Tuesday Japan time. The vehicle, called HTV-X1, is believed to have burned up over the South Pacific. After being launched by an H3 rocket in October last year, the HTV-X1 delivered supplies to the ISS and then carried out missions in orbit around the Earth in and after March this year, including the release of a microsatellite, deployment tests for lightweight panels equipped with antennas and trials of next-generation space solar cells. “All planned missions succeeded and yielded valuable technological findings,” JAXA project manager Norimasa Ito told an online briefing. The HTV-X, an upgraded version of JAXA’s nine-flight HTV series, dubbed Kounotori, is capable of carrying out post-ISS missions, such as experiments and observations, at various altitudes for a long period. The microsatellite released by the HTV-X1 was Ten-Koh 2, developed by Japan’s Nihon University. In addition, lasers were fired from the Earth to three reflectors installed on the spacecraft to observe its attitude fluctuations. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]