Kounotori 6
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The SSRMS grapples the Kounotori 6 spacecraft, prior to berthing on 13 December.
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| Mission type | ISS resupply |
|---|---|
| Operator | JAXA |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | HTV |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 13:26:47, 9 December 2016 (UTC) |
| Rocket | H-IIB 304 |
| Launch site | Tanegashima Y2 |
| Contractor | Mitsubishi |
| End of mission | |
| Disposal | deorbited |
| Decay date | 15:06, 5 February 2017 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Epoch | Planned |
| Berthing at ISS | |
| Berthing port | Harmony nadir |
| RMS capture | 13 December 2016, 10:37 UTC |
| Berthing date | 13 December 2016, 13:57 UTC |
| Unberthing date | 27 January 2017, 10:59 UTC |
| RMS release | 27 January 2017, 15:45 UTC |
| Cargo | |
| Mass | 5.9 t |
| Pressurised | 3.9 t |
| Unpressurised | 1.9 t |
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Kounotori 6 (こうのとり6号機?), also known as HTV-6, is the sixth flight of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, an unmanned cargo spacecraft launched to resupply the International Space Station. It was launched at 13:26:47 UTC on 9 December 2016 aboard H-IIB launch vehicle from Tanegashima Space Center.
Major changes from previous Kounotori include:
SFINKS (Solar Cell Film Array Sheet for Next Generation on Kounotori Six) will test thin film solar cells in space.
KITE (Kounotori Integrated Tether Experiment) was an experimental electrodynamic tether (EDT). The tether was equipped with a 20 kg end-mass, and would have been 700 m long when deployed. A maximum current of 10 mA was planned to run through the tether. Kounotori's ISS rendezvous sensor would have been utilized to measure how the end-mass moves during the test. The EDT experiment was scheduled following Kounotori 6's departure from the ISS, with a planned duration of one week. After the experiment, the tether would have been separated before the spacecraft proceeds with the de-orbit maneuvers. The main objective of this experiment were the orbital demonstration of both extending an uncoated bare-tether, and driving electric currents through the EDT. These two technologies will contribute to gaining capabilities to remove space debris.
Kounotori 6 carries about 5.9 t of cargo (including the support structure weight), consisting of 3.9 t in PLC (Pressurised Logistics Carrier) and 1.9 t in ULC (Unpressurised Logistics Carrier).
Cargo in the pressurized compartment includes 30 bags filled with potable water (600 liters), food, crew commodities, CDRA Bed (Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly), TPF (Two-Phase Flow) experiment unit, PS-TEPC (Position-Sensitive Tissue Equivalent Proportional Chamber) radiation measurement instrument, ExHAM (Exposed Experiment Handrail Attachment Mechanism), HDTV-EF2 hi-def and 4K camera, new J-SSOD (JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer), and CubeSats (AOBA-Velox III, TuPOD which comprises two TubeSats (Tancredo-1 and OSNSAT), EGG, ITF-2, STARS-C, FREEDOM, WASEDA-SAT3). Cargo by NanoRacks includes TechEdSat-5,CubeRider,RTcMISS, NREP-P DM7, four Lemur-2. Additionally, the Blue SPHERES satellite of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory is being returned to the ISS for continued autonomous systems research.
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