Lifting-off from the Tanegashima Space Center, Southern Japan, at 1605 GMT, 24 September, a Japanese H-2B rocket has carried an HTV resupply freighter into LEO. This is the eighth HTV mission in service of the ISS conducted by JAXA. This mission carried 4,100 kg of cargo to the ISS, included in this is another batch of replacement lithium-ion batteries.
The launch was previously delayed from the 10 September, following a fire which broke out on the launchpad. This was apparently caused by static electricity interacting with a high oxygen environment.
HTV 8 captured by ISS robotic arm AT 1112 GMT on 28 September 2019. Later berthed at Harmony nadir port..
The H-2B rocket lifts-off from Tanegashima Space Center carrying the HTV-8 freighter. Courtesy of JAXA
Apart from cargo including six fresh lithium-ion batteries and science experiments, the freighter also carried three CubeSats for later deployment from the ISS. These are; NARSSCUBE 1, a 1U CubeSat from the Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, RWASAT 1 (Rwanda Satellite 1), a 3U CubeSat from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), and AQT-D (Aqua Thruster-Demonstrator), a 3U CubeSat from the University of Tokyo.
