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A 19-story H-2B
rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 1150 GMT
and put the HTV capsule into orbit 15 minutes later, a NASA
Television broadcast showed.
It will take the capsule five days to reach the station, a $100
billion laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above
Earth.
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, who arrived at the outpost last
month, will use the station’s robot arm on Monday to pluck the
capsule from orbit and anchor it to the Harmony module.
The 9,500 pounds (4,309 kg) of cargo aboard the freighter will
help the 15-nation station partnership recover from launch
accidents that claimed three cargo ships.
The two U.S. supply ships, operated by Orbital ATK and privately
owned SpaceX, remain grounded following launch accidents on Oct.
28 and June 28, respectively. Russia’s Progress freighter, one
of which failed to reach the station in April, resumed flights
last month.
“We’re in good shape right now, but if for some reason HTV
didn’t get here, we get pretty low on certain consumables
probably in late September, early October,” NASA astronaut Scott
Kelly said during an inflight interview on Monday.
In addition to refilling the station’s pantries, HTV carries
spacesuit gear, water filters, a galley and science instruments,
including a telescope to measure cosmic rays, particles with the
highest energy in the universe.
Scientists are interested in the composition of the rays and why
they have such high energy levels.
“Cosmic rays come at you from all directions and all the time,"
John Wefel, a Louisiana State University astrophysicist, said in
a NASA TV interview. "Every time one of these high-energy cosmic
rays comes at us and starts triggering the instrument, we record
it.”
The telescope, which will be mounted outside the station, is
expected to operate up to five years.
(Editing by Frank McGurty, Bernard Orr)
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