New Delhi: After an unmanned Russian cargo space ship crashed to Earth moments after it took for the International Space Station (ISS), American space agency NASA has announced the launch of a Japanese cargo ship to the ISS.


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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) cargo ship will be carrying more than 4.5 tons of supplies, water, spare parts and experiment hardware for the six-person station crew, the unpiloted cargo spacecraft, named “Kounotori” – the Japanese word for white stork – will set sail on a four-day flight to the station.


Also aboard the resupply 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. These will be installed during a series of spacewalks currently scheduled in January.


JAXA is scheduled to launch its H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-6 at 8:26 am EST (10:26 pm Japan time) Friday, December 9, from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 8 am.


On Tuesday, December 13, the HTV-6 will approach the station from below, and slowly inch its way toward the complex. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) will operate the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm from the station’s cupola to reach out and grapple the 12-ton spacecraft and install it on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will spend more than five weeks. Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA will monitor HTV-6 systems during the rendezvous and grapple.


The arrival of the cargo ship at the orbiting laboratory, will be broadcast December 9 and 13 on NASA Television and the agency’s website.