Japanese cargo ship reaches space station – Spaceflight Now

WRITTEN HISTORY FOR CBS NEWS AND USED WITH PERMISSION

A Japanese cargo ship loaded with more than 10,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, including a new set of solar batteries, was captured Thursday morning by the robotic arm of the International Space Station to make an appointment without problems.

The station's commander, Drew Feustel and Serena Auñón-Chancellor, operating the arm built in Canada, the cargo ship "Kounotori" HTV-7 was captured at 07:34 EDT (GMT-4) while the two satellites rose to 251 miles at above the north. Pacific Ocean.

"The HTV capture is over, the arm is secure. And I just want to say that we are excited to see HTV-7 arrive at the ISS, "Radio Feustel said. "Thanks to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for working so hard to successfully launch this vehicle despite the recent hardware and weather challenges."

"Thanks for the words," replied Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of Houston. "Congratulations once again on the successful seizure of the seventh HTV, which brought more batteries, (scientific) media and other items to the International Space Station."

With the HTV-7 safely in hand, the Johnson Space Center's flight controllers were ready to take control of the arm's operations and fire the cargo ship from the dock to dock on the road facing the Harmony module.

The HTV Pressurized Wedge, the station's accessible section, holds 7,500 pounds of equipment and supplies, including more than 1,300 pounds of food, clothing, personal items, computer equipment and equipment. spare parts. parts and 3,300 pounds of research equipment and materials.

In the non-pressurized cargo hold of the spacecraft are six powerful lithium-ion batteries that will be installed at the base of the solar panel segment of port 4 of the station. They will replace 12 aging nickel-hydrogen batteries launched with the dies as original equipment in 2006.

Most of the space station's electrical energy is generated by two large sets of rotating solar panels, two on the starboard or right side of the power station and two on the left or port side. Batteries provide power when the station is in the shadow of the Earth and are recharged when the rows are back in the sun.

NASA is replacing the four sets of solar batteries. Originally, the system used 12 batteries for each set of racks, but the replacement units are twice as efficient. Therefore, only six units are needed.

The HTV-6 cargo ship delivered the first set of replacements in December 2016. They were installed on the starboard segment 4 or S4 of solar panels during two spacewalks in January 2017. The batteries on board the HTV -7 will be installed on port 4, or P4, farm segment for two outings in space next month.

NASA originally planned to install the new batteries this month, before Feustel and his two Soyuz MS-08 teammates – vehicle commander Oleg Artemyev and Ricky Arnold – return to Earth next Thursday.

But the launch of the HTV-7 was delayed by 12 days due to bad weather and a technical problem and there is not enough time to make the necessary preparations before Feustel and his teammates leave.

The Soyuz MS-08 crew is scheduled to land in the Kazakhstan steppe at 0745 on 4 October, ending a 196-day mission. Their teammates – Auñón-Chancellor, Sergei Prokopyev, commander of Soyuz MS-09 and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst – will have the station for one week before the arrival of two new crew members.

Soyuz MS-10 commander Alexey Ovchinin and NASA flight engineer Nick Hague are due to launch on Oct. 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the space lab later today. .