HTV-9 Japanese unmanned cargo spacecraft docked with the International Space Station, where it will be located for two months, NASA reports.
The expedition commander and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, with the assistance of Russian flight engineer Ivan Wagner from Roskosmos, controlled the Canadarm2 remote manipulator and captured a 12-ton space ship.
The spacecraft launched on May 20 by the H-IIB launch vehicle from Tanegashima Space Center delivered over 4 tons of payload to the ISS: oxygen, water, food, scientific equipment, as well as new lithium-ion batteries to replace old ones. After unloading, the ship will be filled with waste, and two months later it is planned to be taken away from the ISS for descent from orbit.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) noted the ISS crew has already begun to unload the cargo from the ship.
Designed and manufactured in Japan, the transport ship H-II (HTV), known as KOUNOTORI (translated from Japanese as “white stork”), is an unmanned spacecraft that delivers cargo to the ISS, JAXA reports.
The KOUNOTORI spacecraft provides basic support for ISS operations, delivering up to six tons of cargo, and has the world’s largest carrying capacity. It also has the unique function of transferring a large number of experimental devices in one flight.
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