6 months ago
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Japan's abstraction bureau connected Sunday (October 26, 2025) successfully launched its caller flagship H3 rocket carrying an unmanned cargo spacecraft for its archetypal ngo to present supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the HTV-X1 spacecraft successfully lifted disconnected atop the No. 7 H3 rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center successful confederate Japan.
The spacecraft was separated and placed into a planned orbit, JAXA said. If everything goes smoothly, it is expected to get astatine the ISS successful a fewer days to present supplies. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, presently astatine the ISS, is acceptable to drawback the trade with a robot limb successful the aboriginal hours of Thursday.
The HTV-X is the successor to JAXA’s unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle known arsenic Kounotori, oregon stork successful Japanese, which flew 9 missions to the ISS betwixt 2009 and 2020.
The caller freighter tin transportation a bigger payload and proviso powerfulness during flight, enabling transport of cells and different laboratory samples that requires retention successful debased temperature.
The HTV-X is designed to beryllium connected to the ISS for up to six months to present supplies and retrieve discarded from the ISS, past behaviour method missions portion making an orbital formation aft leaving the station, this clip for 3 months.
H3 rocket replaces Japan's agelong beloved mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its last formation successful June, arsenic a caller flagship exemplary designed to beryllium much outgo competitory successful the planetary abstraction market.
Japan sees a stable, commercially competitory abstraction transport capableness arsenic cardinal to its abstraction programme and nationalist security.
The H3 has truthful acold made six consecutive palmy flights aft a failed debut effort successful 2023, erstwhile the rocket had to beryllium destroyed with its payload.
