Kounotori 4


Kounotori 4, also known as HTV-4, was the fourth flight of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, an unmanned cargo spacecraft launched in August 2013 to resupply the International Space Station. It launched from Tanegashima Space Center aboard H-IIB No. 4 rocket on 3 August 2013 and connected to ISS by 9 August 2013; it carried of cargo. Kounotori 4 undocked on September 4, 2013 and was destroyed by reentry on 7 September 2013.

Specifications

Major changes of Kounotori 4 from previous HTV are:
Kounotori 4 carries about of cargo, consisting of in the pressurized compartment and in the unpressurized compartment.
Pressurized cargo include: CANA, Stirling-Cycle Refrigerator, ISS Cryogenic Experiment Storage Box, i-Ball reentry data recorder, four CubeSats, and Kirobo.
Unpressurized cargo include: MBSU and UTA which are ISS system spare parts, and a NASA experiment module STP-H4.

Operation

Launch and rendezvous with ISS

Kounotori 4 was successfully launched atop a H-IIB carrier rocket flying from pad 2 of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima at 19:48:46 UTC on 3 August 2013.
After 5.5 days of orbital maneuvers, it arrived to Approach Initiation Point at 05:31 UTC, 9 August 2013, and started the final approach sequence at 08:05. The ISS's robotic arm SSRMS grappled Kounotori 4 at 11:22, and fastened to ISS's CBM on 16:32. All berthing operations were completed at 18:38.

Operation while berthed to ISS

The ISS crew opened the hatch and entered to Pressurized Logistics Carrier at 11:11 UTC, 10 August 2013

Departure from ISS and reentry to earth atmosphere

Kounotori 4 undocked from the ISS at 16:20 UTC, 4 September 2013, Karen Nyberg then used the stations Canadarm 2 to manoeuvre HTV-4 away from the station.
Trajectory after the release was controlled so that the reentry coincides with ISS passing over to observe it. Japanese flight controllers have deorbited HTV-4 on 06:11 UTC, 7 September 2013, and it reentered to the atmosphere around 06:37 UTC, 7 September 2013.