A Japanese HII-B rocket launches the unmanned Kounotori 6, or H-II Transfer Vehicle 6, toward the International Space Station on Dec. 9, 2016 from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center. The spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Dec. 13.

A robotic Japanese cargo spacecraft has begun its four-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

The uncrewed H-II Transfer Vehicle 6 (HTV-6) launched Friday (Dec. 9) at 8:26 a.m. EST (1326 GMT; 10:26 p.m. Japan time), rising into the skies above southern Japan's Tanegashima Space Center atop an H-IIB rocket. You can see our launch video recap of HTV-6's nighttime launch here.

HTV-6 is packed with more than 4.5 tons (4.1 metric tons) of supplies, spare parts, scientific equipment and water for the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab. [Japan's Robot Spaceship Fleet in Pictures]

A Japanese HII-B rocket launches the unmanned Kounotori 6, or H-II Transfer Vehicle 6, toward the International Space Station on Dec. 9, 2016 from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center. The spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Dec. 13. (Image credit: NASA TV)

"Also aboard the re-supply vehicle are six new lithium-ion batteries and adapter plates that will replace the nickel-hydrogen batteries currently used on the station to store electrical energy generated by the station's solar arrays," NASA officials wrote in a statement. "These will be installed during a series of spacewalks currently scheduled in January."

The freighter, which is also known as Kounotori 6 (after the Japanese word for "white stork"), is scheduled to arrive at the ISS early Tuesday morning (Dec. 13). ISS crewmembers will grapple HTV-6 using the orbiting lab's robotic arm, and will install the vehicle on the Harmony module's Earth-facing side, NASA officials said.

HTV-6 will stay attached to the ISS for about five weeks; the transfer vehicle will then be loaded with trash and sent to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. (Three of the four robotic re-supply spaceships operating today — HTV, Russia's Progress freighter and Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft — are disposable. Only SpaceX's Dragon capsule is designed to return to Earth in one piece.)

Today's successful liftoff comes just eight days after a Progress loaded with more than 2.5 tons (2.3 metric tons) of cargo fell back to Earth, apparently doomed by an issue with the third stage of the vessel's Soyuz rocket.

The ISS re-supply fleet has experienced a number of such failures recently: Rocket problems scuttled a Cygnus mission in October 2014, a Progress flight in April 2015 and a Dragon mission in June 2015. All three craft bounced back after these failures, subsequently flying successful missions (though it's unclear when Progress will fly again after last week's mishap).

The HTV fleet has a spotless record to date; all five previous Kounotori craft made it to the ISS successfully.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. </s> Japan's unmanned cargo spacecraft, "Kounotori" is to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima around 10:30 pm local time attached to an H-IIB rocket (AFP Photo/STRINGER)

Tokyo (AFP) - Japan launched a cargo ship Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a 'space junk' collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company.

The vessel, dubbed "Kounotori" (stork in Japanese), blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima just before 10:27 pm local time (1327 GMT) attached to an H-IIB rocket.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.

The launch was successful as "the satellite was removed from the rocket" and put into the planned orbit about 15 minutes after the liftoff, JAXA spokesman Nobuyoshi Fujimoto on Tanegashima told AFP.

More than 50 years of human space exploration since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957 has produced this hazardous belt of orbiting debris.

There are estimated to be more than 100 million pieces in orbit, posing a growing threat to future space exploration, scientists say.

Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.

The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment -- there are hundreds of collisions every year.

The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit.

Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface.

JAXA worked on the project with Japanese fishnet manufacturer Nitto Seimo to develop the cord, which has been about 10 years in the making.

"The tether uses our fishnet plaiting technology, but it was really tough to intertwine the very thin materials," company engineer Katsuya Suzuki told AFP.

"The length of the tether this time is 700 metre (2,300 feet), but eventually it's going to need to be 5,000 to 10,000 metre-long to slow down the targeted space junk," he added.

Previous experiments using a tether have been done in recent years.

Another spokesman for the space agency has said it hopes to put the junk collection system into more regular use by the middle of the next decade.

"If we are successful in this trial, the next step will be another test attaching one tip of the tether to a targeted object," he added.

The cargo ship launched Friday is also carrying other materials for the ISS including batteries and drinking water for the astronauts living there. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An unmanned H-2B rocket blasted off from Tanegashima island in southern Japan on Friday to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

The delivery of about 4.5 tons (4,100 kg) of supplies for the six-member station crew took on fresh urgency after a botched Russian cargo run on December 1 and additional delays returning NASA contractor SpaceX to flight following an unrelated accident.

The rocket, carrying Japan’s HTV-6 cargo ship, blasted off at 8:26 a.m. EST (1326 GMT), flying over the Pacific Ocean on its way to space. The capsule is due to reach the station, a $100 billion laboratory flying about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, on Tuesday.

In addition to food and supplies, the capsule is delivering six lithium-ion batters and adapter plates, weighing about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg), which are needed for a planned upgrade of the station’s electrical system. The batteries will be installed during upcoming space walks, said NASA launch commentator Dan Huot.

Japan’s HTV capsules are one of four supply ships that fly to the station, a project of 15 nations. However, two of the four freighters are currently grounded following accidents.

A Russian Soyuz rocket failed to put a Progress capsule into orbit on Dec. 1 due to a problem with the booster's third-stage engine. The capsule burned up as it fell back into Earth's atmosphere, with debris crashing to the ground.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX is recovering from a launch pad explosion on Sept. 1 that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and a $200 million Israeli communications satellite. SpaceX now expects to return to flight in January. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A Japanese capsule blasted off with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station on Friday, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.

The Russian rocket accident and the grounding of one of NASA’s commercial suppliers make this delivery all the more urgent. The spacecraft should arrive at the station Tuesday.

“Have a safe flight,” French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said in a tweet from the space station, addressing the load. “Looking forward to your arrival!”

The capsule — called Kounotori, or white stork — contains nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including six new lithium-ion batteries for the station’s solar power system. Astronauts will conduct spacewalks next month to replace the old nickel-hydrogen batteries.

This is Japan’s sixth shipment to the 250-mile-high outpost, currently home to Pesquet, two Americans and three Russians. It launched from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

Launches by SpaceX, meanwhile, have been on hold since a September rocket explosion on the pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the final Block 4 version of the launch vehicle to be launched, lifted of from the Cape’s Space Launch Complex 40 on a mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, June 29, 2018.

The flight got underway at 5:42 a.m. EDT (09:42 GMT) with the CRS-15 Dragon spacecraft perched atop the approximately 230-foot (70-meter) tall F9. The “flight-proven” Dragon spacecraft was tasked with carrying an estimated 5,900 pounds (2,676 kilograms) worth of supplies and equipment to low-Earth orbit (LEO). From there, it is scheduled to rendezvous with the ISS on July 2.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The last Block 4 variant of the Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida on June 29, 2018. The mission, a cargo run to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. The CRS-15 cargo Dragon spacecraft began its ascent toward the International Space Station at 5:42 a.m. EDT. Photos courtesy: Scott Schilke, Mike Deep, Mike Howard, Michael McCabe, Vikash Mahadeo, Andy Sokol with Turbofox Photography CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The last Block 4 variant of the Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida on June 29, 2018. The mission, a cargo run to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. The CRS-15 cargo Dragon spacecraft began its ascent toward the International Space Station at 5:42 a.m. EDT. Photos courtesy: Scott Schilke, Mike Deep, Mike Howard, Michael McCabe, Vikash Mahadeo, Andy Sokol with Turbofox Photography </s> Image copyright JAXA, Uni Tokyo & collaborators Image caption Hayabusa-2 arrived at the asteroid 162173 Ryugu in June

The Japanese space agency has set dates for its historic plan to explore the surface of an asteroid with robots.

The Hayabusa-2 spacecraft reached the asteroid Ryugu in June this year after a three-and-a-half-year journey to the spinning top-shaped space rock.

Officials have picked days in September and October for the deployment of separate robotic landing craft from the Hayabusa-2 "mothership".

The robots will be despatched to separate locations on the asteroid.

If all goes well, Hayabusa-2 will be the first spacecraft to successfully deploy landers to gather data from the surface of an asteroid.

The 1km-wide space rock known formally as 162173 Ryugu belongs to a particularly primitive type of asteroid, and is therefore a relic left over from the early days of our Solar System. Studying it could shed light on the origin and evolution of our own planet.

Image copyright Jaxa Image caption The Minerva II-1 hoppers (left and centre), alongside Minerva II-2 (right)

Hayabusa-2 was launched from the Tanegashima Launch Center in far southern Japan on 3 December 2014. It has been carrying several science instrument payloads for release on to the surface of its target, Ryugu.

On 21 September, it will despatch the first of these piggybacked packages. A 3.3kg container known as Minerva II-1, which is mounted on the spacecraft, will deploy two robots known as Rover 1A and Rover 1B.

The 1kg "rovers" will actually move by hopping under the asteroid's low gravity. Each one contains a motor-powered internal mass that rotates to generate force, propelling the robot across the surface.

The rovers are equipped with wide-angle and stereo cameras to send back pictures from Ryugu.

Then, on 3 October, the mothership will deploy a lander called Mascot, which has been developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in conjunction with the French Space Agency (CNES).

Image copyright DLR Image caption The Mascot lander was built by the German Aerospace Center in conjunction with the French Space Agency

Mascot, otherwise known as the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, is a 10kg instrument package that will gather a range of scientific data from the surface.

It carries a wide-angle camera, a microscope to study the composition of minerals, a radiometer to measure temperature and a magnetometer to measure the magnetic field.

After it reaches the surface, Mascot can move its position only once, by jumping.

But the asteroid's rough surface could make landing risky.

"The surface of Ryugu is covered with boulders, so we need to continue gathering and considering information so that we can touch down safely," the mission's official Twitter account stated.

The biggest of these, near the South Pole, is estimated to be around 130m - about the same as the height of the London Eye.

Another lander, known as Minerva II-2, which has been built by a team at Japan's Tohoku University, will be deployed at a later date.

Image copyright Jaxa Image caption Hayabusa-2 landing site options: Mascot is headed to MA-9, Minerva II to N6

Image copyright JAXA / Akihiro Ikeshita Image caption Later in the mission, Hayabusa-2 will use a projectile to excavate fresh material from beneath Ryugu's surface

Even further on in the mission, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) plans to detonate an explosive charge that will punch a crater into the surface of Ryugu.

Hayabusa-2 would then descend into the crater to collect fresh rocks that have not been altered by aeons of exposure to the environment of space.

These samples will then be sent to Earth for laboratory studies.

The spacecraft will depart from Ryugu in December 2019 with the intention of returning to Earth with the asteroid samples in 2020.

The first Hayabusa spacecraft was launched in 2003 and reached the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.

Despite being hit by a series of mishaps, it returned to Earth in 2010 with a small amount of material from the asteroid.

An American asteroid sample return mission, Osiris-Rex, will rendezvous with the object 101955 Bennu later this year.

Follow Paul on Twitter. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Japanese capsule has been launched with much-needed supplies to the International Space Station.

Friday’s successful launch from Japan comes a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff. The Russian rocket accident and the grounding of one of NASA’s commercial suppliers make this delivery all the more urgent. The spacecraft should arrive at the station Tuesday.

The capsule — called Kounotori, or stork — contains nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including new lithium-ion batteries for the station’s solar power system. Astronauts will conduct spacewalks next month to replace the old nickel-hydrogen batteries that store energy generated by the station’s big solar panels.

SpaceX launches, meanwhile, have been on hold since a September rocket explosion on the pad in Florida. </s> BEIJING
• China has launched its first cargo spacecraft, taking another step towards its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft lifted off early yesterday evening on a Long March-7 Y2 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan.

The spacecraft is designed to dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2", where two astronauts spent a month last October in China's longest-ever manned space mission.

The cargo spacecraft mission will provide an "important technological basis" for the construction of China's space station, according to state media.

It added that the spacecraft can carry 6 tonnes of goods, 2 tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months.

Despite the advances in its space programme for military, commercial and scientific purposes, China still lags behind the United States and Russia.

In late 2013, China's Jade Rabbit rover landed on the Moon to great national fanfare, but ran into severe technical difficulties.

The US Defence Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space- based assets in a crisis.

China insists it has only peaceful ambitions in space, but has tested anti-satellite missiles. </s> The 11th dedicated cargo delivery mission by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft NASA’s Kennedy Space Center will deliver nearly 6,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft is set for launch Saturday, June 3, and should reach the space station Monday, June 5. A Falcon 9 rocket will send the Dragon cargo carrier into orbit for the two-day transit to the research outpost.

SpaceX has launched 10 resupply missions to the space station to date, including one cargo capsule lost in a launch failure. One more Dragon spacecraft flew to the space station in May 2012 on a demonstration mission.

In addition to more than 3,700 pounds of cargo inside Dragon’s pressurized cabin, the spacecraft’s external trunk is packed with three unpressurized packages.

One of the instruments, NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), will be mounted by the station’s robotic arm on ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2, a platform on the space-facing side of the research lab’s starboard-side truss. NICER will study the super-dense remnants of supernova explosions, called neutron stars, and demonstrate how future missions could use pulsars for deep space navigation.

Another unpressurized payload is the Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The new solar array design could be used on future commercial satellites, making the power generators 20 percent lighter and able to fit into a launch package four times smaller than conventional fold-out solar panels.

A commercial Earth-imaging platform developed by Teledyne Brown is also stowed in Dragon’s trunk. The Multiple User System for Earth Sensing, or MUSES, can host high-definition and hyperspectral cameras for Earth-viewing.

NASA has provided a breakdown of the cargo manifest listed below.
JAXA launches the unmanned cargo spacecraft Kounotori 6, also known as HTV-6, from the Tanegashima Space Center to resupply the International Space Station.