Cargo spacecraft "HTV 5" (Kounotori 5)

Spacecraft nº:

Japanese spacecraft nº: 213

Description:

• Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, as a contribution to the space station program, the HTV is 32 feet long and 14.4 feet wide. It is designed to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including equipment too big to pass through the space station's hatches.
• HTV-5, also known as KOUNOTORI 5, is the fifth flight of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, an unmanned cargo spacecraft launched to resupply the International Space Station. Among the supplies inside Japan's fifth H-2 Transfer Vehicle are spare parts for the space station's water filtration system, spacesuit components and medical gear to replace items lost during a SpaceX rocket failure in June 2015.
• HTV-5's External Platform carries the CALET electron/cosmic-ray detector which will be installed on the Kibo Exposed Facility.
  The pressurized compartment carries nine racks:
  
  • HTV5 Stbd1 US Galley Rack, to be installed in the Unity node
  • HTV5 Fwd1 JAXA Multipurpose Small Payload Rack 2 (MSPR-2), now installed in Kibo at JPM1F2
  • HTV5 Port1 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Aft1 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Stbd2 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Fwd2 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Port2 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Aft2 HTV Resupply Rack
  • HTV5 Base HTV Resupply Rack Type D (HRR-D)
  The HRR-D is a new storage system to increase the HTV capacity. The Port1 and Aft1 HRRs will be moved into the ISS temporarily for unloading while the row 2 HRRs remain on HTV and their contents - CTBs or Cargo Transfer Bags - will be unloaded directly. Contained in the HRRs are a SAFER EVA backpack, a Mouse Habitat Unit (but no mice for it yet), 18 cubesats and the Nanoracks External Platform (NREP) and JAXA ExHAM-2 expsoure unit, both of which will be used for mounting external experiments. The cubesats are:
  Nanoracks-integrated:
  
  • PlanetLabs Flock 2b-1 to 2b-14, for Earth imaging
  • GOMSpace GOMX-3, for tests of ADS-B aircraft data relay
  • Aalborg University AAUSAT-5, a 1U sat for tests of AIS ship tracking receivers
  JAXA-integrated:
  
  • Brazilian Space Agency/University of Brasilia SERPENS with technology communications payloads
  • Chiba Inst. of Technology S-CUBE with UV and visible imagers to observe meteors from above.
  All the cubesats are 3U form factor except for AAUSAT-5. It's not clear which HRRs the cubesats are delivered in. The JAXA-integrated cubesats have now been installed in the J-SSOD No. 4 deployer and are ready to go into the Kibo airlock. CALET has a mass of 650 kg; the 7 HRR racks carry 6057 kg of cargo. HTV-5 carries 2306 kg of propellant. The Galley and MSPR racks probably have a mass around 500 kg each; the dry HTV without payloads is about 6100 kg.

Mission details:

• The 5th H2 Transfer Vehicle, HTV-5 or Kounotori 5, was launched from Tanegashima on Aug 19, 2015.
• HTV-5 arrived at the ISS on Aug 24 2015 and was berthed at Harmony nadir at 1402 UTC.
  
  

  HTV-5 arrival

  HTV-5 grapple by Canadarm 2 robotic arm

  
  
• On Aug 25, 2015 the SSRMS extracted the HTV Exposed Pallet and handed it to the JEM RMS, which berthed the EP on the Exposed Facility at location EFU10. The JEM RMS then grappled the CALET experiment and moved it to EFU9.
• The SSRMS arm unberthed the Kounotori-5 from the Harmony module at 1112 UTC Sep 28, 2015. Release was delayed one orbit due to a robotics problem and occurred at 1653 UTC. The next day Kounotori-5 lowered its orbit with two burns and then made a final deorbit burn at 2008 UTC, with atmosphere entry around 2033 UTC for destruction over the South Pacific.

Astrophilately covers:

1st Phase Maneuver, cancel Houston Mission Control.

Deorbit & Re-Entry, cancel Houston. Credit: #401