Japan’s HTV6 Cargo Ship Departs ISS, Jan 2017, Earth orbit

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) HTV6 (Konoutori6) cargo ship will depart from the International Space Station (ISS) on January 27, 2017 at 10:30 am ET.  NASA TV coverage of the departure begins at 10:00 am ET.

HTV6 arrived at ISS on December 13, 2016, four days after its December 9 launch.  It delivered 4.5 tons of water, spare parts and experiment hardware, including six new lithium-ion batteries that replaced nickel-hydrogen batteries previously used to store energy from the ISS solar arrays.  They were installed on the ISS exterior during two spacewalks earlier this month. 

For about one week between its ISS departure and reentry, it will be used in a JAXA experiment to measure electromagnetic forces using a tether.  It will be commanded to reenter on February 5. The spacecraft is not designed to survive reentry and will burn up in the atmosphere.