HTV Technical Demonstration Vehicle

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.

Configuration

H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)

Recorded flights

Time in space

52d 4h 24m 14s

Agency

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Vehicle profile

Cargo Earth Orbit Logistics

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's national aero-space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and the launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions, such as asteroid exploration and possible manned exploration of the Moon. JAXA launch their Epsilon vehicle from the Uchinoura Space Center and their H-II vehicles from the Tanegashima Space Center.

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