Japanese Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station Ahead of US Supply Ship Launch

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://www.space.com/japan-cargo-ship-htv8-leaves-space-station.html

Astronauts on the space station used a robotic arm to release the cargo ship, called HTV-8, from the station at 1:21 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT) as the two spacecraft sailed 261 miles (420 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, just west of the California coast.

"Gone but not forgotten," station astronaut Christina Koch of NASA, who controlled the arm during HTV-8's release, wrote on Twitter later. "Watching the HTV cargo ship depart @Space_Station today and remembering the complex dance of the robotic arm that marked the beginning of its stay."

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.
HTV-8's departure sets 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 arrive at the station two days later to deliver another 4 tons of supplies.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched HTV-8 to the space station Sept. 24 using an H-IIB rocket that lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The spacecraft arrived at the station four days later, delivering more than 4 tons of supplies - including vital new batteries for the outpost's solar arrays.

HTV-8 spent 34 days attached to an Earth-facing port on the station's U.S. Harmony module. On Saturday night (Nov. 2), the spacecraft will fire its thrusters to intentionally fall out of orbit. It is42042 expected to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

JAXA's HTV spacecraft (the name is short for H-II Transfer Vehicles) are also known as Kounotory (Japanese for "white stork"). They are part of an international fleet of robotic cargo ships that includes Russia's Progress vehicles, SpaceX's Dragon, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft and the European Space Agency's Autonomous Transfer Vehicles.

 

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In space Japan can only be a follower since China is better in space with Russia and USA.

 

[Suika]

Because Japan operates in cooperation, Japanese astronauts have been able to clock in far more hours in space than PRC astronauts.

 

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But they have to ride on USA equipment which they probably have to rent.

 

[Suika]

But they have to ride on USA equipment which they probably have to rent.

Its true that there is no Japanese manned launch capability. Its usually been either the Space Shuttle or Soyuz. In the near future NASA's Orion or SpaceX's Dragon will be other possible manned space flight vehicles. JAXA has no current plans for developing a manned space vehicle either.

Although it would be fair to point out that in the wide features of space flight, JAXA's resupply vehicle HTV does offer some capabilities for supply missions to the International Space Station that no other country currently can do. There are two kinds of cargo compartments on the HTV, an internal and an external. The external one is unique to the HTV. Only the Space Shuttle was able to unload externally. Also, of all spacecraft, HTV is able to deliver the most cargo weight.

So cooperation goes both ways, if Japan was not in cooperation with other countries, then the International Space Station would have fewer resupply vehicles and possible have no resupply vehicle available with externally loaded cargo ever since the Space Shuttle retired.