Japan is about to launch a transport ship to the space station

The Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) has said it will launch a rocket to bring transport ships to deliver goods to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 11.

A rocket launch at Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.(Photo: Reuters)

According to JAXA, the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) 8 (aka KOUNOTORI8) unmanned transport ship will leave the launch pad at Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 6:33 am on 11/9. (Japan time).

The vessel is expected to fly into ISS after three days of space travel.

The HTV-8 ship carried 5.4 tons of cargo including food and laboratory supplies to provide astronauts on missions to the space station.

It is known that HTV-8 is the eighth mission of the Japanese unmanned transport ship to be launched into space to provide goods for ISS. The first flight HTV-1 was carried out by JAXA 10 years ago, on September 11, 2009.