Maiden flight of the uncrewed cargo spacecraft to International Space Station.
H-IIB (H2B) is an expendable launch system used to launch H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTV, or Kounotori) towards the International Space Station. H-IIB rockets are liquid-fuelled with solid-fuel strap-on boosters and are launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Mitsubishi and JAXA have been primarily responsible for design, manufacture, and operation of H-IIB.
HTV-1, also known as the HTV Demonstration Flight or HTV Technical Demonstration Vehicle, was the first Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle, launched in September 2009 to resupply the International Space Station and support the JAXA Kibo laboratory or JEM. It was an unmanned cargo spacecraft carrying a mixture of pressurised and unpressurised cargo to the space station. After a 52-day successful mission, HTV departed the ISS on 31 October 2009 after being released by the station's robotic arm. The spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 2 November and disintegrated on re-entry as planned.
H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) DetailsMitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group. MHI's products include aerospace components, air conditioners, aircraft, automotive components, forklift trucks, hydraulic equipment, machine tools, missiles, power generation equipment, printing machines, ships and space launch vehicles. Through its defense-related activities, it is the world's 23rd-largest defense contractor measured by 2011 defense revenues and the largest based in Japan.
INFO WIKIOn Sept. 10, 2009, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched its first cargo delivery spacecraft, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-1 (HTV-1), to the International Space Station. The HTV cargo vehicles, also called Kounotori, meaning …