Japan Launches Cargo Shipment To Space Station

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)will roll out its T-IIB rocket this afternoon on the Tanegashima Space Center, in accordance to US space company NASA.

If all goes according to plan, the cargo ship will arrive at the space station early Monday morning (Aug. 24).

A Japanese rocket blasted off Wednesday carrying emergency supplies in an unmanned cargo vessel bound for the international Space Station. Then, the launch was yet again postponed, this time for Wednesday, August 19.

A Japanese rocket launch awaits to be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in south Japan space station.

The HTV-5 is also carrying a student-built satellite called the AAUSAT5 to the station, as part of the European Space Agency’s ‘Fly Your Satellite from the ISS!’ education program. These supplies include water, food, spare parts and experiment hardware. Japan’s last resupply flight to the ISS was made by HTV4 in August 2013, delivering 5.4 metric tons of cargo to the ISS. Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are about five months into an unprecedented yearlong mission aboard the orbiting lab that is investigating how long-duration spaceflight affects astronauts psychologically, physiologically and genetically.

The launch on Wednesday will be the fifth mission of an HTV to the space station in low Earth orbit; four HTVs have flown to the Station to date.

The H-2B rocket was originally scheduled to be launched on Sunday.