{"id":225055,"date":"2025-10-25T17:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/225055\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T17:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:13:10","slug":"watch-japans-advanced-new-cargo-spacecraft-launch-to-the-iss-for-the-1st-time-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/225055\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Japan’s advanced new cargo spacecraft launch to the ISS for the 1st time today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launch of New unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft1\uff08HTV-X1\uff09 aboard the 7th H3 Launch Vehicle (H3 F7) – YouTube
\n\"Launch<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Japan’s new HTV-X cargo spacecraft will launch on its first-ever mission to the International Space Station today (Oct. 25), and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n

The robotic HTV-X is scheduled to lift off atop an H3 rocket<\/a> from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center today at around 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT and 9 a.m local Japan time on Oct. 26).<\/p>\n

You can watch the launch live here at Space.com<\/a>, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA<\/a>), or directly via the agency<\/a>. Coverage will begin about an hour before liftoff.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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\"illustration\n<\/p>\n

Illustration of Japan’s new HTV-X cargo spacecraft. (Image credit: JAXA)<\/p>\n

The HTV-X is the successor to JAXA’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV<\/a>), also known as Kounotori (Japanese for “White Stork”), which flew nine missions to the International Space Station<\/a> (ISS) between September 2009 and May 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At 26.2 feet (8 meters) long, the new freighter is about 4 feet (1.2 m) shorter than its predecessor, but it can loft roughly the same payload mass to low Earth orbit<\/a> (about 13,200 pounds, or 6,000 kilograms). The HTV-X also offers other advantages.<\/p>\n

“HTV-X enhances transportation capabilities and adds the capability to provide various users with on-orbit demonstration opportunities for up to 1.5 years after leaving ISS until reentry,” Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the HTV-X for JAXA, wrote in a description of the vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The HTV-X’s potential uses also extend beyond the ISS, according to JAXA<\/a>. The agency envisions it aiding “post-ISS human space activities in low Earth orbit” as well as possibly flying cargo to Gateway<\/a>, the space station NASA may build in lunar orbit as part of its Artemis program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

HTV-X’s debut will increase the stable of ISS cargo craft by one-third. The currently operational freighters are Russia’s Progress<\/a> vehicle and Cygnus<\/a> and Dragon, spacecraft built by the American companies Northrop Grumman and SpaceX<\/a>, respectively. Only Dragon is reusable; the others (including HTV-X) are designed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when their missions are over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Launch of New unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft1\uff08HTV-X1\uff09 aboard the 7th H3 Launch Vehicle (H3 F7) – YouTube Watch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-225055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}