Japan's Kounotori supply capsule lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center. Photo Credit/JAXA
A towering Japanese HII-B rocket thundered away from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan early Saturday, initiating a five-day journey to the International Space Station for Kounotori, an unmanned cargo transport carrying 5.3 tons of spare parts, food, research gear and other supplies.
Kounotori, which means “White Stork,” was on course to dock with the station early Thursday.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s cargo transport will play an increasingly significant role in station operations as NASA’s space shuttle fleet is retired later this year. Cargo operations will be shared with the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, Russia’s venerable Progress cargo capsules and emerging U. S. commercial space transportation companies.
Kounotori lifted off on Saturday at 12:37 a.m., EST. The launching was delayed for two days by bad weather.
JAXA’s first station cargo mission flew successfully in September 2009.
Unlike Europe’s ATV and Russia’s Progress, Japan’s space freighter is designed to rendezvous rather than dock with the station.
As Kounotori nears the orbiting science laboratory, NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paulo Nespoli will be at the controls of the station’s Canadian robot arm.
Coleman will grapple the free-flying Kounotori and maneuver the big capsule to the station’s Harmony module, where it will be berthed with the Earth facing port. Thursday’s grapple and berthing activities are scheduled to unfold between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., EST.
A hatch leading to the cargo in Kounotori’s pressurized section will be opened by the station crew on Friday.
An unpressurized section of the JAXA freighter will be opened on Feb. 1. Working with Japanese and Canadian robot arms, the astronauts will remove external spare parts from Kounotori’s unpressurized cargo section and temporarily store them until the shuttle Discovery arrives in late February. Discovery carries a large permanent external station platform to store what are considered spare parts from Kounotori that are critical to the operation of the station following the shuttle’s retirement.
Kounotori will be loaded with trash before it departs the station in late March.