New Unmanned Japanese Re-Supply Vessel For the ISS 93
Joshua writes "JAXA, Japan's version of NASA, has scheduled the launch of its new rocket, the H-IIB, for September 11th, 2009. The rocket will be carrying up the first in a series of unmanned supply vessels for the ISS called the HTV. The new Japanese addition to the international space fleet comes as a huge welcome sign to NASA, who has scheduled the space shuttle to retire in 2010. The HTV will be able to transport vital supplies, equipment, and experiments to the ISS, a job that the US space shuttle has been doing largely up until now. Yearly launches for the H-II2 and HTV are scheduled between now and 2015. Until NASA can finish the next generation Ares I rocket, which isn't likely to be finished before 2017, taking astronauts into space and to the ISS will likely become the job of Russia."
Spacecraft visiting the ISS (Score:5, Informative)
For reference, there are two spacecraft that can bring crew to and from the ISS:
* The Space Shuttle
* Soyuz
, and two unmanned supply ships:
* Russian Progress [wikipedia.org]
* European Automated Transfer Vehicle [wikipedia.org] (ATV)
The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle [wikipedia.org] will be the third. It has less payload than ATV and cannot reboost the station, but the door is bigger so it can carry standard size experiment racks and other big things. Neither of the two launch very often, so both will be needed.
Half an hour until launch. (Score:5, Informative)
Live video from JAXA [www.jaxa.jp]
Live video from NASA [nasa.gov]
Re:Spacecraft visiting the ISS (Score:5, Informative)
Russian Progress, not Shuttle, supplying ISS (Score:3, Informative)
I thought it was the unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft that has mostly been supplying the ISS:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/progress.html [nasa.gov]
We have Liftoff (Score:4, Informative)
Space.com Reports on the Launch [space.com]
Re:Russian Progress, not Shuttle, supplying ISS (Score:3, Informative)
Not really (Score:4, Informative)