NASA TV Coverage Set For Launch, Capture Of Japanese Cargo Ship

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Jul 17, 2012, 02:25 ET

HOUSTON, July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Television coverage of the launch and arrival of an unpiloted cargo spacecraft to supply the International Space Station will begin at 8:15 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 20. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) "Kounotori 3" H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV-3, is set to launch at 9:06 p.m., July 20 (11:06 a.m. Japan time on July 21) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

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The 16.5-ton HTV-3 is carrying almost 4 tons of supplies and experiment hardware. It will launch atop an H-IIB rocket. The launch will begin a weeklong journey to the station.

NASA TV coverage of Kounotori 3's approach to the station will begin at 6 a.m. Friday, July 27. The cargo spacecraft will be commanded to fly within about 40 feet while Expedition 32 Flight Engineers Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to grapple the vehicle and berth it to a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node. Grapple and berthing are scheduled for around 7 a.m.

NASA Television schedules are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA