Trash-laden HTV cargo ship departs space station

[Canuckistanian]

Concluding a 60-day stay at the International Space Station, a Japanese robotic cargo freighter left the complex Monday and headed for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean later this week.


~snip

The HTV delivered 8,500 pounds of experiments, spare parts and crew provisions to the space station after launching Jan. 22 from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

The 35,000-pound craft arrived at the complex five days later, and the lab's crew removed two external payloads with the station's robotics systems and transferred several tons more by hand from the HTV's pressurized cabin.

Now filled with trash and packing foam from the shuttle Discovery's mission in early March, the HTV will dispose of the station's garbage in a fiery re-entry over the Pacific Ocean later this week.

[drm604]

1. "Japanese robotic cargo freighter"

I wonder how many of those we'll see in the near future? :(

[Canuckistanian]

2. Russia's been sending up robotic spacecraft for years

And they're VERY good at it.

[drm604]

3. Yes, but I was talking about the Japanese ones.

Unfortunately they have other concerns right now.