This
story was updated at 1:45 p.m. EDT.
Japan's
first space cargo ship soared into orbit Thursday to begin its maiden cruise to
the International Space Station.
The
inaugural H-2
Transfer Vehicle (HTV-1) blazed into a predawn sky above its seaside launch
pad at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, where the local time was
2:01 a.m. Friday at the time of liftoff. It was still Thursday in the United
States, where NASA officials at space station Mission Control in Houston and
other centers monitored the launch.
The launch
occurred at 1:01 p.m. EDT (1701 GMT), just hours before the planned evening
landing of NASA's space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven astronauts in
Florida. The shuttle is returning from its own delivery mission to the space
station and is scheduled
to land at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT), weather permitting.
"HTV-1 is
opening up new horizons for JAXA's undertaking of human spaceflight," said
Masazumi Miyake, deputy director of JAXA's Houston office, before launch. "I
like to say that JAXA is now entering a new era."
Built for
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), HTV-1 blasted off atop a brand new
H-2B rocket, the country's most powerful booster to date. About 15 minutes
after liftoff, the cargo ship separated from the rocket's second stage and
began the week-long trek to the space station.
"HTV
separation!" JAXA's Mission Control reported in a broadcast as applause rang
out.
If all goes
well, the cargo ship should arrive at the orbiting laboratory Sept. 17 after a
series of rendezvous and abort system tests.
Japan's HTV
spacecraft is about 33 feet (10 meters) long, 14 feet (4.4 meters) wide and
designed to haul up to six tons of supplies to the space station. It is covered
in solar panels for power and designed to fly on the equally new H-2B booster
rocket, which is derived from Japan's workhorse H-2A rocket family.
Japan's
space firsts
The $220
million HTV spacecraft has been
in development in Japan since 1997 and JAXA has spent about $680 million
overall to bring it to reality, JAXA officials have said. It is the latest in a
series of international cargo ships from Russia and Europe that haul vital
supplies to the space station.
"It's an
amazing vehicle and it's a pleasure to have it in the fleet," said Mike
Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.
Suffredini
said there are a number of spaceflight
firsts that come with Japan's HTV. It is the first vehicle since NASA's space
shuttle that can haul supplies and equipment for both the inside and exterior
of the space station.
The HTV is
also the first space freighter to fly to the American side of the space station
and the first one not designed to dock itself at the station. Instead, an
astronaut inside the orbiting lab will grab the 16 1/2-ton spacecraft using the
station's robotic arm. That capability, NASA officials said, is vital since
future commercial cargo ships are expected to be grappled in the same way.
The cargo
ship is Japan's newest contribution to the space station. JAXA built the
station's massive laboratory Kibo, which means "Hope" in Japanese. Construction
of that $1 billion lab, which is as large as a tour bus, was completed in July.
It has its own robotic arm, small airlock, external science porch and an attic
storage room.
For its
inaugural mission, the HTV-1's pressurized section has been packed with about 3
1/2 tons of supplies that include food, laptop computers and a smaller robotic
arm for the Kibo lab to be used for delicate operations. An external payload
drawer is loaded with two experiments to be attached to the Kibo module's
porch.
If the
HTV-1's week of rendezvous tests go well, the spacecraft will be directed to
fly within about 33 feet (10 meters) of the station so NASA astronaut Nicole
Stott can grab it with the outpost's robotic arm.
"My
understanding of the hardware is that it's going to be a very stable vehicle,"
Stott said earlier this month. "I think the excitement of it is that it really
is this new capability for us."
JAXA will
watch over the HTV mission from its Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Japan,
which is also home to the agency's Kibo mission operations center.
SPACE.com
will provide complete coverage of Japan's HTV-1 test flight as well as NASA's
ongoing Discovery shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Click here for SPACE.com's space
station coverage and a link to NASA TV.
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