Japan's HTV spacecraft to dock with US module shortly.

17/9 Tass 15

MOSCOW, September 17 (Itar-Tass) - Japan's first cargo spacecraft HTV,
launched from the Tanegashima cosmodrome on September 10, is to dock with
the US module Harmony -- a segment of the International Space Station
(ISS) -- on the night fromThursday to Friday.

Valery Lyndin, spokesman of the Flight Control Center outside Moscow,
has told Itar-Tass, "The Japanese spacecraft will dock with the lower port
of the American module Harmony. The docking operation will begin at 23:50,
Moscow time, on Thursday and end at about three a.m. on Friday, September
18".
Unlike the Russian Progress spacecraft and the European ATV ones, the
Japanese space vehicle lacks an automatic docking system. Canadian
astronaut Robert Thirsk, assisted by Americans Nicole Stott and Michael
Barratt, will grasp the HTV with a Canadarm manipulator and, in a
hand-operated mode, will slowly draw it to the ISS.
After the spacecraft gets close to the station, the astronauts will
fix it at the Harmony's lower docking port. The cargo spacecraft will be
part of the orbital complex until November 3, after which it will undock
from the station and splash down into the Pacific Ocean.
The HTV spacecraft, ten metres long and 4.4 metres in diameter, and
weighing 10.5 tonnes, will deliver 4.5 tonnes of supplies, including
clothers and frozen food for the crew.
In the next six years, Japan is to build another six cargo spacecraft
that would be capable of bringing up to six tonnes of supplies to the ISS.
Within the period ending in 2015, the Japanese space agency JAXA is
planning to launch one spacecraft a year. The significance of these will
grow following the termination of the use of US space shuttles.
-0-pop