TOKYO - A JAPANESE rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island on Saturday on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of Nasa's space shuttle program.
The unmanned rocket was carrying a payload of nearly six tons of food, water, clothing and experimental equipment to the astronauts in orbit in the space station, an international project involving 15 nations. The rocket also was carrying cargo for Nasa.
After docking with the ISS, dropping off its cargo and being loaded up with waste material, the rocket's transfer vehicle, named 'Kounotori2', will be detached and burn itself up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Kounotori means white stork.
It is expected to reach the ISS on Jan 27.
JAXA, Japan's space agency, hopes the project will help it build expertise for similar low-cost ferrying missions.
Such projects have become more important now that the United States has scaled back its ability to launch supplies. Since 2009, the ISS has been manned by six astronauts, but keeping them fed and supplied has become a bigger challenge because of the retirement of the US space shuttles. -- AP
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