Key mission for Space Station

The cargo ship HTV-1 will carry food and scientific equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).

His role is very important for the ISS project, which next year could no longer count on the services of the shuttle fleet in the United States.

Japan's space agency (JAXA) launched the module this Thursday at 17.03 GMT in the H-IIB rocket.

The mission of HTV-1 is run by engineers from Tsukuba, Japan, and from the control center of the American Space Agency (NASA, for its acronym in English) in Houston.

A few minutes after liftoff, the rocket separated from the module, which now heads for orbital complex, which will arrive as scheduled in a week.

The HTV-1 is a cylinder ten feet long by four wide capable of carrying up to six tons of material.

In the coming years the HTV and other robotic vehicles of the same type will play an important role for supplying the ISS when it is fully operational.

"This flight of HTV-1 is proof to verify their functionality and performance," said Masazumi Miyake, one of the officials of the U.S. JAXA

"After the end of this mission we plan to launch on HTV average a year."

Unlike other cargo spacecraft, the HTV-1 Japan's dock on the ISS helped by the station's robotic arm, which is the first time that captures something so great in flight path. The HTV-1 remains anchored to the ISS for about six weeks, while the supplies are unloaded and the material it carries.

The re-entry spacecraft loaded with waste from the ISS at the end of the mission and burn somewhere in the South Pacific.

The HTV will be vital to fill the gap that current U.S. shuttles will be used when no more after 2010.

Then the ISS depends five trucks for its logistics operations.

The Russian Progress spacecraft and the European ATV have already demonstrated their ability to fly. Four flights are planned over the ATV to the ISS, each year, beginning in 2010.

After this first mission of HTV, Japan plans to launch six more missions until 2015.

Two private U.S. companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, are developing the Dragon spacecraft and Cygnus. The first is expected to transport cargo to the ISS by the end of 2010.

HTV and Dragon are particularly important for its ability to carry their heavy loads depressurized compartments that normally would not withstand the load points of a pressurized compartment.