Watch the Launch

Watch the Launch

Kounotori 1 (HTV-1)

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Resupply

Low Earth Orbit Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

Maiden flight of the uncrewed cargo spacecraft to International Space Station.

H-IIB

Family:
Configuration: 304

H-IIB (H2B) is an expendable launch system used to launch H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTV, or Kounotori) towards the International Space Station. H-IIB rockets are liquid-fuelled with solid-fuel strap-on boosters and are launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Mitsubishi and JAXA have been primarily responsible for design, manufacture, and operation of H-IIB.

Specifications
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    56.6 m
  • Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    551.0 T
  • Thrust
    9000.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    H-IIB
  • Family
  • Variant
    304
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    H-IIB 304
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $112500000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    16500.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8000.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

HTV Technical Demonstration Vehicle


In-active Cargo Unmanned Payload Capacity: 6000 kg
Destination: International Space Station
Serial Number: HTV-1

HTV-1, also known as the HTV Demonstration Flight or HTV Technical Demonstration Vehicle, was the first Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle, launched in September 2009 to resupply the International Space Station and support the JAXA Kibo laboratory or JEM. It was an unmanned cargo spacecraft carrying a mixture of pressurised and unpressurised cargo to the space station. After a 52-day successful mission, HTV departed the ISS on 31 October 2009 after being released by the station's robotic arm. The spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 2 November and disintegrated on re-entry as planned.

H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Details

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

(MHI)

President: Seiji Izumisawa Founded: 1884 Successes: 56 Failures: 2 Pending: 8

Agency Type:

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group. MHI's products include aerospace components, air conditioners, aircraft, automotive components, forklift trucks, hydraulic equipment, machine tools, missiles, power generation equipment, printing machines, ships and space launch vehicles. Through its defense-related activities, it is the world's 23rd-largest defense contractor measured by 2011 defense revenues and the largest based in Japan.

INFO WIKI
NASA

15 Years Ago: Japan launches HTV-1, its First Resupply Mission to the Space Station

On Sept. 10, 2009, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched its first cargo delivery spacecraft, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-1 (HTV-1), to the International Space Station. The HTV cargo vehicles, also called Kounotori, meaning …

Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

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