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Japanese HTV-4 cargo spacecraft arrived at space station.
21:44
On August 09, 2013 at 15:38 UTC the 4th Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV "Kounotori-4”) was installed on its berthing port of the "Harmony” module of the International Space Station. Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg, with the assistance of Flight Engineer Christopher Cassidy, initially grappled the HTV-4 with the station’s Canadian robot arm at 11:22 UTC as the Japanese spacecraft flew within about 10 meters of the ISS. Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano (Italy) joined the two NASA astronauts in the cupola to monitor the systems of the Japanese spacecraft during its approach. After equalizing pressures between the cargo spacecraft and the station, the crew is scheduled to open the hatches on August 10 and begin the process of removing the supplies from the Kounotori’s pressurized logistics carrier. The HTV-4 unmanned supply spacecraft delivered to the station about 3.6 tons of science experiments, equipment, food and other important gear. The spacecraft also delivered four small CubeSat satellites to be deployed from Kibo’s airlock. The "PicoDragon” will collect imagery of Earth. It was built by the University of Tokyo, the Vietnam National Satellite Center and IHI Aerospace. ArduSat 1 and ArduSat X were developed by NanoSatisfi, a San Francisco-based start-up, with the help of crowd-funding. The satellite's developers say investors can buy time on the satellite for imaging and other research pursuits. The "TechEdSat 3” satellite was developed by San Jose State University and the University of Idaho with oversight from NASA's Ames Research Center. The small satellite, about the size of a loaf of bread, will test a passive deorbit system called the Exobrake.
