Japan is poised to launch its second-ever unmanned cargo vessel to the International Space Station early Saturday morning (Jan. 22). The vessel, which was initially scheduled to launch Thursday (Jan 20), was delayed due to poor weather forecasts.
The spacecraft, called Kounotori 2 ("Kounotori" is Japanese for "white stork"), is slated to lift off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 12:37 a.m. EST (0537 GMT, or 2:37 p.m. local time in Japan). The cargo ship will launch atop Japan's H2B rocket, according to the Japanese space agency JAXA.
If everything goes according to plan, Kounotori 2 will arrive at the station on Jan. 27, delivering 5.3 tons of food, supplies and spare parts.
The mission will be the second for JAXA's unmanned space cargo ship program, which had a successful maiden run to the station with its Kounotori 1 vessel in September 2009.
The Kounotori craft are officially known as H-2 Transfer Vehicles (HTVs). The name Kounotori was given after the first HTV flight to signify the delivery of happiness, JAXA officials said.
Japan's Kounotori freighters - along with European and Russian robotic cargo ships - play a large role in ferrying supplies to the space station in the future, NASA officials have said. The U.S. space agency will also rely on commercial craft under development by private companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for future deliveries.
NASA plans to retire its space shuttle fleet, a chief station supplier, later this year.
"After the space shuttle is retired, the HTV will be the only vehicle that is capable of transporting large-scale maintenance equipment vital for sustaining the ISS," JAXA's Yoshihiko Torano, HTV project manager, said in a statement. "Thus it will be an indispensable spaceship for the operation of the ISS."
Kounotori is a shiny, gold-colored cylinder about 33 feet long (10 meters) by 14 feet wide (4.4 m). It can haul up to 6 tons of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the station, but it will be carrying about 5.3 tons on this trip, JAXA officials said.
That payload will include drinking water, food and racks for scientific experiments, as well as a pallet loaded with spare parts for the station.
The cargo vessel will remain attached to the station for about 40 days. It will be filled with trash, then detached at the end of March to burn up in Earth's atmosphere, officials said.
"Kounotori has a one-way ticket," Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide said in a recent JAXA video. "It can bring supplies to ISS, but is unable to bring anything back to the Earth."
However, JAXA officials have said that the HTV program could help pave the way for more ambitious, manned round-trip missions in the future.
"I hope Japan will embark on new manned space activities using technologies from Kounotori," Torano said.
Written by Mary McHugh Thursday, 10 June 2010 17:55
After a day's delay in liftoff due to a malfunctioning fire extinguishing system on the launchpad, on June 10 at 5:01 p.m. South Korean time, the Naro-1 satellite launcher lifted off from the Naro Space Center at Goheung on the south coast. It then exploded about two and a half minutes later. This was the second failure in as many tries for the multistage rocket.
Another perhaps controversial aspect is that South Korea engaged the help of Russia in developing the Naro-1's liquid-fueled first stage. The Russians assistance included tests and technical advice. Following last year's launch, Russia asserted its booster had nothing to do with that failure, which later was blamed on problems with the stage-separation systems. By Thursday noon Russia had yet to comment on this latest explosion; neither had North Korea.
There is no word as yet from South Korean officials as to when a third attempt will be made. The Naro-1, also called the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, was a 108 ft. long two-stage rocket which cost $450.7 million to construct.
Japan Astronaut to Command Space Station February 17, 2011, 2:57 PM JST
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, 47-year-old Mr. Wakata, who debuted in space in 1996 and was the first Japanese astronaut to serve as a resident crew member on the ISS in 2009, will lead the team of astronauts on the station after spending about six months there. Saitama-born Mr. Wakata, a one-time engineer for Japan Airlines Corp. who enjoys baseball and skiing, will be shuttled to the ISS late 2013. He’ll be the first Asian commanding astronaut too, joining Belgian and Canadian nationals as the only non-American and non-Russian commanders so-far.
In a video conference from Houston, Texas Thursday, Mr. Wakata said, “It has been a challenge for Japan to have an astronaut in a leadership role. I am very honored in that sense (to have been chosen for the role),” he said, attributing Japan’s success with the transport craft Konotori in January and the country’s contribution to space research in general as creating the ideal environment for a Japanese astronaut to be appointed. “With the Japanese spirit of harmony, I hope to bring the team together,” he added.
Japan’s first space traveler was Mamoru Mohri in 1992, and JAXA has produced seven astronauts since then.
Space station could be abandoned in November BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: August 27, 2011
HOUSTON -- Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.
"Logistically, we can support [operations] almost forever, but eventually if we don't see the Soyuz spacecraft, we'll probably going to unmanned ops before the end of the year," Suffredini said in an interview Thursday, one day after Russia lost a Soyuz rocket with an automated Progress resupply ship bound for the space station.
A Soyuz rocket crashed Wednesday minutes after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket was firing when something caused the vehicle's RD-0110 engine to turn off early, scattering debris in the Altai region of Siberia more than 1,000 miles east of the launch site, according to Russian media reports.
The Soyuz-U's third stage is almost identical to equipment used on the Soyuz-FG booster that propels human crews into orbit, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
"They have data showing that the engine was shut down due to what looks like low pressure on the fuel side. They saw data all the way down to when the vehicle broke up," Suffredini said. "In this case, they at least know where the potential anomaly area is, so they can focus their attention there."
NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin were preparing to launch to the space station Sept. 22, but that flight is likely going to be delayed until at least October in the wake of Wednesday's rocket failure.
The crew's Soyuz TMA-21 capsule can stay docked to the space station for up to 210 days. Its design life expires in late October, and Suffredini said he expects no problems continuing their mission until then.
The other half of the station's six-person crew -- NASA flight engineer Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa -- are supposed to return home Nov. 16.
"That would be a philosophy that says let's go fix the problem and get a couple of test flights under our belt before we fly crew," Suffredini said. "You have to keep in mind we won't fly with this anomaly. We won't fly knowing we have this anomaly. I expect to determine root cause, repair root cause and fly these flights."
"I fully expect our Russian colleagues will resolve this anomaly in a timely fashion, and I expect them to do it in a safe fashion. Having the data they have on the anomaly is just fantastic," Suffredini said.