LIVE: H-IIB launch with HTV-2 - Jan. 22, 2011

[Fuji]

HTV-2 was arrived at Tanegashima Space Center, July 23 and 29.
End of Oct., each of the HTV-2 elemets will be assembled and integrated. And final launch preparation will be started.

[Space Pete]

These are the HTV-2 Payloads:

PLC:
• TCS rack – will be installed in JPM1F2.
• Kobairo rack – will be installed in JPM1F3.

ULC:
• CTC-4 – will be installed on ELC-4 inboard-facing FRAM by SPDM.
• FHRC – will be installed on ELC-4 inboard-facing FRAM by SPDM.

[Fuji]

These are the HTV-2 Payloads:

PLC:
• TCS rack – will be installed in JPM1F2.
• Kobairo rack – will be installed in JPM1F3.

Why TCS rack ? 
I didn't heard such development information.
JEM TCS1 and TCS2 rack was already on-board the JPM (JPM1D1 and JPM1D6).

JAXA will be launched following 2 ISPRs by the HTV-2.
• Kobairo rack (Gradient Heating Furnace: GHF)
  http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/experiment/pm/ghf/
• MPSR(Multi Purpose Small payload Rack)
  http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/experiment/pm/mpsr/mpsr.pdf
   Edit: MPSR was wrong. Renamed MSPR (Multi-purpose Small Payload Rack).

[Fuji]

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=48374

In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shipping containers packed with tools and flight support equipment for orbital replacement units are ready for their trip to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center. There, the six units, including the flex hose rotary coupler, will be processed for launch to the International Space Station aboard HTV-2, scheduled for Jan. 20, 2011.

[Space Pete]

Why TCS rack ? 
I didn't heard such development information.
JEM TCS1 and TCS2 rack was already on-board the JPM (JPM1D1 and JPM1D6).

JAXA will be launched following 2 ISPRs by the HTV-2.
• Kobairo rack (Gradient Heating Furnace: GHF)
  http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/experiment/pm/ghf/
• MPSR(Multi Purpose Small payload Rack)
  http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/experiment/pm/mpsr/mpsr.pdf

Aah, thanks. In NASA's plan of ISS racks, it shows that a TCS rack will be installed in JPM1F2. But maybe that's a mistake? The same plan does also show that MPSR will be installed in JPM1A4.

-----

NASA TV Video: "Kennedy Ships Off ISS Spare Parts to Japan".

[Space Pete]

SpaceRef Canada: "Meet Canada's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator or Dextre for Short".

Once Dextre is able to pull its weight on the station, the CSA is looking ahead to the first major maneuver involving Canadarm2, the mobile base the arm rests on, and Dextre.
Slated for January 2011, the Japanese HTV-2 cargo spacecraft will make a supply run to ISS. Once it arrives, a robotic ballet dance will ensure between the Canadian instruments.

Canadarm2 will first snag HTV-2 and take out a hardware rack - called the Exposed Pallet - to hand over to a Japanese robotic arm aboard ISS on the Kibo module. Next, the arm will be moved over to its mobile base to move Dextre to the pallet. Dextre will take out two payloads from the rack, then hitch a ride on Canadarm2 to the opposite side of the station to install them.

When the installation is complete, Canadarm2 will drop Dextre off in the middle of the station and move back towards the Kibo module, where it will pick up the empty rack and stow it on HTV-2.

Around 40 days after HTV-2 arrives at the station, Canadarm2 will release it. Both the Japanese spacecraft and the rack will take a controlled plunge into Earth's atmosphere, burning up upon re-entry.

[Space Pete]

I just came across this NASA article. It's a bit old, but I'll post it anyway since it contains useful info that's relevant to current ops.


NASA Payloads Take First Trip to Station Aboard Japanese Rocket.
 
For the first time, two unpressurized orbital replacement units (ORUs) bound for the International Space Station will be delivered by a launch vehicle other than the space shuttle. Pressurized ORUs have been sent to the station before on other spacecraft.

Another first for the unpressurized ORUs was traveling more than 7,500 miles by land, air and sea to arrive at their final processing and launch destination in Tanegashima, Japan, which is an island about 35 miles off the country's coast.

The ORUs are the flex hose rotary coupler (FHRC) and the cargo transportation container (CTC), which basically is a box containing five smaller ORUs. They will be installed in a Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-2) and launched to the International Space Station aboard a Japanese H-IIB rocket in January 2011.

"We've never done this before," said Dr. Jose Nunez, who is the NASA mission manager at Kennedy Space Center. "This is a whole new set of firsts that we've embarked on for NASA and Kennedy Space Center." The ORUs and associated equipment were processed at Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility and crated for shipping. Then, the two massive containers, combined weighing nearly 9,000 pounds, and several smaller crates were transferred by forklift from the facility's shipping and receiving bay and loaded into a truck to start their journey.

"The upcoming HTV-2 launch is unique and exciting on multiple levels," said Josephine Burnett, director of Kennedy's International Space Station and Spacecraft Processing Directorate. "Our expertise in flight hardware ground processing is absolutely world class and I am extremely proud of the hard work and dedication of the Kennedy and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) HTV-2 teams."

The ORUs overseas trip began with stops in Orlando, Fla., Atlanta and Chicago, before their flight to Narita and Kagoshima Port in Japan. They were then loaded on a ferry for transport to the space launch complex on the island.

Nunez explained that the ORUs are critical for the space station. The rotation capability for each station radiator assembly is provided through a thermal radiator rotary joint (TRRJ). The TRRJ then provides power, data and liquid ammonia transfer to the rotating radiator beam while providing structural support for the radiator panels. "The FHRC is the one that provides the transfer of liquid ammonia across the rotary joint. It will be stored up in space in case the one on station should fail," Nunez said.

"With each ORU having its own specific set of requirements and issues it was a lengthy event to get to this moment," Nunez said. "This is only the first phase, the second phase starts as soon as Kennedy's mission processing team arrives at the Tanegashima Space Center."

Nunez, along with Boeing Task Lead Mike Little, NASA Operations Engineer Curt Horanic, NASA Quality Engineer Steve Barry, and several Checkout Assembly and Payload Processing workers, will travel to Japan in early September to work with JAXA on final processing of the ORUs and installation into the transfer vehicle.

After launch to the orbiting laboratory, HTV-2 will fly close enough to the station for Expedition crew members to use the Canadarm2 to capture it and berth it to the Nadir port on the Harmony module. The ORUs will be removed and attached to the Japanese Exposed Facility and then to the Express Logistics Carrier-4 on the station.

Source (with accompanying images).

[Fuji]

FHRC and CTC was attached to the Exposed Pallet.

[Danderman]

http://engineering.osu.edu/news/?p=1131

OSU CubeLab Team’s Microgravity Experiment Will Reach International Space Station

"A multidisciplinary team led by aerospace engineering students and faculty is preparing an experiment to be launched aboard a Japanese spacecraft to the International Space Station in January. "

"The Ohio State experiment will be sent into space aboard an unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle managed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency in a CubeLab, which is produced by a company called NanoRacks  and has a side length of 10 centimeters as well as its own thermal, power, and data management systems. Once it arrives at the International Space Station, it will be placed in the U.S. National Laboratory there called Destiny, where NanoRacks operates a hardware platform known as an EXPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station) Rack. Each rack is capable of stowing 16 of the small CubeLab enclosures. Through financial assistance and engineering consultation from Belcan Corp., an engineering support firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio State’s project will be one of the first scientific experiments from academia that NanoRacks will handle."

[Fuji]

HTV-2 integration has started oct. 6.
This process wiil be completed end of oct.

First photo;  Pressurized Logistics Carrier (PLC) and Unpressurized Logistiocs Carrier (ULC) assembly work.

[Space Pete]

Thank you for these updates, Fuji!

[Space Pete]

Fuji - do you know where MPSR will be installed in the JPM?

I know that Kobairo will go to F3, but there are three possible locations for MPSR - F2, D3, & A4. I have one source that says it will be F2, and another source that says it will be A4. Do you know where it will go?

Thanks.

[Fuji]

Fuji - do you know where MPSR will be installed in the JPM?

I know that Kobairo will go to F3, but there are three possible locations for MPSR - F2, D3, & A4. I have one source that says it will be F2, and another source that says it will be A4. Do you know where it will go?

Thanks.

Yes I know. A4 is right location.

[Space Pete]

Fuji - do you know where MPSR will be installed in the JPM?

I know that Kobairo will go to F3, but there are three possible locations for MPSR - F2, D3, & A4. I have one source that says it will be F2, and another source that says it will be A4. Do you know where it will go?

Thanks.

Yes I know. A4 is right location.

Thank you, Fuji!

[Space Pete]

Includes a major HTV-2 mission overview.

www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/10/iss-prepares-busy-upcoming-year-logistics-operations

[Fuji]

Another EP photo and HRR graphic.

[Fuji]

HTV-2 was finally integrated in Oct. 29.

[Fuji]

H-IIB-2 Fairing was shipping to Tanegashima Space Center.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd (KHI) was news released Nov. 4.

 H-II Rocket Fairing by KHI (For reference.)
 http://www.khi.co.jp/english/aero/product/space/h_2.html


H-IIB-2 rocket will be shipped from MHI Nov. 8.

[Fuji]

Today, JAXA & MHI officially announced the H-IIB-2 launch date (Japanese only).
Launch date: Jan. 20, 2011 06:29 (UTC).

This time, day light launch

[jacqmans]

November 10, 2010 (JST)

Launch of the H-II Transfer Vehicle 2 (HTV2)
Aboard the H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 2

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd. would like to announce that the launch of the H-IIB Launch
Vehicle No. 2 (H-IIB F2) with the H-II Transfer Vehicle 2 (HTV2, a cargo
transporter to the International Space Station) onboard was reported to the
Space Activities Commission (SAC) as follows.

Scheduled date of launch :
                 January 20 (Thursday), 2010 (Japan Standard Time, JST)
Launch time :    Around 3:29 p.m. (JST)*1
Launch windows : January 21 (Fri.) through February 28 (Mon.), 2011 (JST)*2
Launch Site :    Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center


(*1) Time will be determined by the updated orbit of the International
     Space Station (ISS.)
(*2) The launch day and time during the launch windows shall be decided by
     the international coordination for ISS operations.


URL:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/11/20101110_h2bf2_e.html