Japanese Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station Ahead of US Supply Ship Launch – Space.com

Japanese Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station Ahead of US Supply Ship Launch - Space.com thumbnail

An unpiloted Eastern cargo ship left the International Home Diagram Friday (Nov. 1), wrapping up a month-lengthy supply mission as a brand recent U.S. supply ship prepares for a weekend launch. 

Astronauts on the situation region feeble a robotic arm to launch the cargo ship, called HTV-8, from the region at 1: 21 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT) as the 2 spacecraft sailed 261 miles (420 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, appropriate west of the California soar. 

“Long gone but no longer forgotten,” region astronaut Christina Koch of NASA, who managed the arm all the plan through HTV-8’s launch, wrote on Twitter later. “Observing the HTV cargo ship hump away @Space_Station this day and remembering the complex dance of the robotic arm that marked the beginning of its terminate.” 

Video: Take a look at up on HTV-8 Leave the Home Diagram!


Photos:
Japan’s Robotic Home Cargo Ship Immediate

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HTV-8 cargo ship is released back into space via robotic arm to end its delivery mission to the International Space Station on Nov. 1, 2019.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Company’s HTV-8 cargo ship is released relieve into situation by strategy of robotic arm to shatter its supply mission to the International Home Diagram on Nov. 1, 2019.

(Image credit score: NASA TV)

HTV-8’s departure units the stage for the launch of a U.S. cargo ship, the Cygnus NG-12 spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. That mission is scheduled to launch Saturday (Nov. 2) at 9: 59 a.m. EDT (1359 GMT) and reach on the region two days later to ship one other 4 hundreds gives. 

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) launched HTV-8 to the situation region Sept. 24 the exercise of an H-IIB rocket that lifted off from the Tanegashima Home Heart in southern Japan. The spacecraft arrived on the region four days later, delivering more than 4 hundreds gives – including predominant recent batteries for the outpost’s characterize voltaic arrays. 

Video: How Japan’s HTV Cargo Ships Work

Linked: Japan’s HTV Home Truck Defined (Infographic)

Long gone but no longer forgotten! Observing the HTV cargo ship hump away @Space_Station this day and remembering the complex dance of the robotic arm that marked the beginning of its terminate. The batteries being removed were later effect in by us on spacewalks—can’t beat that for teamwork! pic.twitter.com/UsJHFAWJTENovember 1, 2019

HTV-8 spent 34 days connected to an Earth-going through port on the region’s U.S. Harmony module. On Saturday night (Nov. 2), the spacecraft will fireplace its thrusters to intentionally descend out of orbit. It is a long way42042 expected to exercise up over the Pacific Ocean.

JAXA’s HTV spacecraft (the name is brief for H-II Transfer Vehicles) are also called Kounotory (Eastern for “white stork”). They are piece of an international rapid of robotic cargo ships that comprises Russia’s Development vehicles, SpaceX’s Dragon, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft and the European Home Company’s Self sustaining Transfer Vehicles. 

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@situation.com or apply him @tariqjmalik. Apply us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.

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