Doha: Japan on Sunday successfully launched its new unmanned cargo spacecraft on an H3 launch vehicle from a space center on a southwestern island to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
According to Qatar News Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the HTV-X1 spacecraft successfully lifted off atop the No. 7 H3 rocket from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center in the country's south.
The spacecraft was separated and placed into a planned orbit, JAXA said. If everything goes smoothly, it is expected to arrive at the ISS in a few days to deliver supplies. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, currently at the ISS, is set to catch the craft with a robot arm in the early hours of Thursday.
The HTV-X spacecraft has a maximum payload capacity of 6 tons, 1.5 times the carrying capacity of its predecessor, the Kounotori that delivered supplies to the ISS nine times between 2009 and 2020, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.