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A Japanese robotic cargo ship takes off from the International Space Station on Wednesday, November 7th, for a weekend date with forgetting to conclude a successful replenishment mission.
The station's astronauts released the HTV-7 supply ship from the station using a robotic arm at 11:51 am EST (16:51 GMT), the two spacecraft having sailed 254 miles above the northern Pacific Ocean . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the cargo ship bound for the station in late September to deliver more than 5 tons (4.5 tons) of fresh produce, scientific equipment and equipment. other supplies.
"The Expedition 57 crew would like to thank the entire JAXA program and engineering teams for the seamless design and execution of the HTV-7 replenishment mission. ", said the station's commander, Alexander Gerst, of Mission Control, of the European Space Agency, after the successful demarcation. The freighter, he added, is an essential part of a truly international effort to support the world's only outpost in space. Gerst used the robotic arm to release HTV-7 with support from NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor. [Japan’s Huge HTV Space Truck Explained (Infographic)]
The JAXA HTV freighters (abbreviation for H-2 Transfer Vehicles) are disposable spacecraft designed to carry tons of supplies to the space station and then intentionally fly off and burn themselves in the earth's atmosphere. the end of the mission. The spacecraft, also known as Kounotori (Japanese, "white stork"), is part of a fleet of robotic cargo ships from Japan, Russia, Europe and the United States. Who have supplied the station with supplies in the last 18 years.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HTV-7 cargo ship is seen leaving the International Space Station on November 7, 2018. It has delivered more than 5 tons of supplies to the orbiting laboratory.
Credit: NASA TV
HTV-7 delivered essential supplies to the International Space Station crew, including six new batteries for the on-orbit laboratory's solar power system. It also carried two tiny cubes for a space elevator experiment (deployed Oct. 6) and a small back-to-back capsule that, in a premiere in Japan, will attempt to send experiments back to Earth. If all goes well, the capsule will be deployed just before the return of HTV-7 on Earth in the South Pacific on Saturday (November 10), NASA officials said.
Called the HTV Small Return Capsule, the cone-shaped vehicle is 0.8 feet wide, 0.6 meters high and weighs 180 kilograms.
This NASA graph shows the location and relative size of the HTV miniature return capsule from Japan on the HTV-7 cargo ship. The capsule will test the sample return technologies when it falls on Earth on November 10, 2018.
Credit: NASA TV
"The return capsule will be ejected from a hatch after burning desorbite," NASA officials said in a statement. "The experimental capsule will perform a parachute-badisted water landing off the coast of Japan, where a JAXA ship will be ready for recovery."
NASA officials said the capsule contained the results of a protein crystal growth experiment.
Gerst wished good luck to the team behind the re-entry capsule in his next technological test. It was he and his 57 Expedition crew members who filled the capsule with his experimental cargo and secured it to the HTV-7 hatch.
"We congratulate all the participating engineers for the successful design and badembly of the small capsule back and we wish the best for the most interesting and interesting phase of the mission of the return capsule: the return and the lowering."
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him. @tariqjmalik. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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