Nearly 11 years after the launch of the first Japanese Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to the International Space Station, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) HTV-9 spacecraft departed the orbiting outpost on Tuesday afternoon.
The golden cargo resupply vessel will now spend its remaining days free-flying in low Earth orbit before performing a final burn to end its mission with a fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.