NASDA H-2 TRANSFER VEHICLE
Notes:
The H-2 Transfer Vehicle. The September 1988 Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement allowed ESA and NASDA to use the Ariane-5, H-2A or other indigenous launchers for resupplying their Station modules; NASA promised to provide all the necessary rendezvous and docking information to designers in Europe and Japan. Each partner will pay the full cost of maintaining its own hardware elements on the Station and they will also have to reimburse NASA for using Space Shuttle and Tracking & Data Relay Satellite services. The Japanese HTV shown here can transport about 7t of pressurized, unmanned cargo to the Space Station. Unlike ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle and Russia's Progress, the HTV can carry International Standard Payload Racks but it has no docking capability. Instead, the HTV will rendezvous with the Canadian robotic arm which moves it to one of the Space Station's docking hatches.
The $203 million Progress/ATV type "H-2 Tranfer Vehicle" is on track for a 2001 test launch. The Japanese will launch two 15-tonne HTV vehicles per year as their contribution to ISS operations. Pre-PhaseB studies were started in 1995. The HTV would require the development of a new twin-core version of the H-2A launcher.
Each HTV can carry 7,000kg of pressurized supplies (8 International Standard Payload Racks) but no propellant. Japanese government officials are now increasingly worried about the Japanese Experiment Module's future operating cost. Japan will be expected to contribute $410-450 million per year -- half of it for ISS operations (NASDA's share is 12.8%) and the rest for ancillary infrastructure costs. The total budget could amount to almost a third of NASDA's total budget by 2005.
