Japan Successfully Launches New Resupply Craft on H3 Rocket

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Oct 26, 2025 16:25 (JST)

Tanegashima, Kagoshima Pref., Oct. 26 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, successfully launched an H3 rocket carrying the first unit of the newly developed HTV-X resupply vehicle on Sunday.

The seventh H3 rocket was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, at 9 a.m., and the resupply vehicle was put into the target orbit about 14 minutes after the liftoff.

The HTV-X is on a smooth flight for the ISS, such as by deploying solar panels as planned, according to JAXA. It will deliver food and other supplies as well as equipment for experiments to astronauts stationed at the ISS.

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, now at the ISS, is slated to catch the craft with a robot arm shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday Japan time.

Launching the HTV-X “is an important role Japan should play and also an important responsibility it should fulfill in the international project involving the ISS, and (today’s successful launch) is of great significance in that a path toward the attainment is now seen,” JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa told a news conference.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press