TOKYO – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV-X cargo transporter likely reentered the atmosphere and burned up over the South Pacific on Tuesday, an agency official said, ending its mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and support scientific experiments while orbiting Earth.
The vehicle, the first of the HTV-X generation developed by JAXA, contained trash from the ISS astronauts’ daily lives and experiments and was intended to burn up while traveling through the atmosphere, according to the agency.
An HTV-X can carry more cargo than the Kounotori, its predecessor vehicle used until 2020, and can stay in orbit for up to 18 months after departing from the ISS.
JAXA launched the HTV-X1 in October last year on the H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture.
After departing from the space station in March, it released a small satellite and provided assistance in running various experiments.