Japan’s Kounotori 7 Cargo Ship Docks with ISS

September 28, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Kounotori 7 unmanned cargo spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Friday.

After the docking at 3:08 a.m. (6:08 p.m. Thursday GMT), an astronaut from the ISS entered the spacecraft around 4:40 a.m.

Kounotori 7 is scheduled to separate from the ISS in early November after delivering items such drinking water, food and Japanese-made large lithium-ion batteries to be installed at the ISS.

These items weigh about 6.2 tons in total, the heaviest-ever load transported by a Kounotori vehicle.

A compact capsule attached to Kounotori 7 to collect experimental samples will be detached just before the spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

The capsule is expected to land near Minamitorishima, a Pacific island some 1,800 kilometers from Tokyo, and be collected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

At 8:36 p.m. on Thursday, Kounotori 7 was captured by the ISS's robotic arm.

The capture drew applause from some 50 people involved in the mission at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan.

"I feel very relieved, after the series of launch postponements," said JAXA flight director Takashi Uchiyama, who was in charge of Kounotori 7 control operations.

On Sunday, the H-2B Launch Vehicle No. 7 carrying Kounotori 7 lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

All of the seven Kounotori docking missions since the first Kounotori vehicle was launched in 2009 have been conducted successfully. Jiji Press