Japan’s new HTV-X cargo spacecraft will launch on its first-ever mission to the International Space Station immediately (Oct. 25), and you’ll watch the motion reside.
The HTV-X is the successor to JAXA’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), often known as Kounotori (Japanese for “White Stork”), which flew 9 missions to the International Space Station (ISS) between September 2009 and May 2020.
At 26.2 ft (8 meters) lengthy, the brand new freighter is about 4 ft (1.2 m) shorter than its predecessor, however it might loft roughly the identical payload mass to low Earth orbit (about 13,200 pounds, or 6,000 kilograms). The HTV-X also offers other advantages.
“HTV-X enhances transportation capabilities and adds the capability to provide various users with on-orbit demonstration opportunities for up to 1.5 years after leaving ISS until reentry,” Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the HTV-X for JAXA, wrote in a description of the vehicle.
The HTV-X’s potential makes use of additionally prolong past the ISS, according to JAXA. The company envisions it aiding “post-ISS human space activities in low Earth orbit” in addition to presumably flying cargo to Gateway, the house station NASA could construct in lunar orbit as a part of its Artemis program.
HTV-X’s debut will improve the secure of ISS cargo craft by one-third. The at present operational freighters are Russia’s Progress car and Cygnus and Dragon, spacecraft constructed by the American corporations Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, respectively. Only Dragon is reusable; the others (together with HTV-X) are designed to deplete in Earth’s environment when their missions are over.