{"id":12952,"date":"2019-09-10T20:43:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/space-station-cargo-mission-grounded-by-launch-pad-fire\/"},"modified":"2019-09-10T20:43:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:43:10","slug":"space-station-cargo-mission-grounded-by-launch-pad-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/space-station-cargo-mission-grounded-by-launch-pad-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Space station cargo mission grounded by launch pad fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_40698\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40698\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-40698\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/EEHfulPUwAU3D00.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/EEHfulPUwAU3D00.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/EEHfulPUwAU3D00-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/EEHfulPUwAU3D00-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/EEHfulPUwAU3D00-678x452.jpeg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40698\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The H-2B rocket during fueling before Tuesday\u2019s launch pad fire. Credit: MHI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Japanese officials called off the launch of an H-2B rocket and HTV space station cargo ship Tuesday after a fire broke out on the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center.<\/p>\n<p>The fire occurred at around 1805 GMT (2:05 p.m. EDT) Tuesday, or 3:05 a.m. local time Wednesday, around three-and-a-half hours before the H-2B launcher was scheduled to lift off with an automated supply ship bound for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the fire was still under investigation when officials briefed reporters on the fire four hours after cameras first observed the blaze near the base of the 186-foot-tall (56.6-meter) rocket. The launch pad was evacuated at the time of the fire, and the rocket\u2019s manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, reported no injuries.<\/p>\n<p>A live video feed of the launch pad showed a flash near the base of the H-2B rocket, followed by a cloud smoke. Water jets began spraying the launcher and its mobile platform around 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>Around 90 minutes later, a loudspeaker announcement at Tanegashima said the H-2B launch was postponed because of a \u201cfire&nbsp;around a hole in the deck of the mobile launcher \u2026 We are trying to extinguish a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fire occurred after the H-2B launch team filled the rocket with nearly 430,000 pounds (194 metric tons) of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ymO9bN67jJY?start=569\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The flames were easily visible in the live video feed for several minutes before abating. But a hydrogen fire can be almost invisible, and water continued spraying on the launch pad for nearly three hours.<\/p>\n<p>Detectors around the launch pad did not sense any leak of liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen during the countdown, and MHI officials at Tanegashima told reporters a few hours after that fire that ground crews were still investigating the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>No apparent damage to the rocket was visible after sunrise at Tanegashima.<\/p>\n<p>Officials from MHI and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency did not announce a new target launch date, but the flight was expected to be postponed by at least several days.<\/p>\n<p>The H-2B rocket was set to blast off with Japan\u2019s eighth HTV resupply mission to the space station.<\/p>\n<p>The eighth HTV spacecraft is packed with some 8,326 pounds (3,777 kilograms) of equipment, experiments and crew provisions for the space station, including six new lithium-ion batteries to update the orbiting research lab\u2019s power system.<\/p>\n<p>Around 5,313 pounds (2,410 kilograms) of cargo is loaded inside the HTV\u2019s pressurized logistics carrier, including a Sony-developed laser communications experiment, hardware for a cellular biology research rack and fresh water.<\/p>\n<p>Astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan on the space station planned to conduct at least two spacewalks Sept. 27 and Oct. 1 to begin installing the fresh batteries, which will replace aging and less-capable nickel-hydrogen batteries on the P6 solar array module on the far port side of the station\u2019s truss backbone.<\/p>\n<p>The spacewalk schedule may be impacted by the HTV launch delay, depending on how long the mission remains grounded.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a Russian Soyuz crew ferry craft is set for liftoff from Kazakhstan on Sept. 25 with cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, and United Arab Emirates astronaut&nbsp;Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. The trio will arrive at the station the same day, and Ali Almansoori will return to Earth on Oct. 3 on a different Soyuz capsule with outgoing station crew members Alexey Ovchinin and Nick Hague.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The H-2B rocket during fueling before Tuesday\u2019s launch pad fire. Credit: MHI Japanese officials called off the launch of an H-2B rocket and HTV space station cargo ship Tuesday after a fire broke out on the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center. The fire occurred at around 1805 GMT (2:05 p.m. EDT) Tuesday, or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2217,2517,1839,2462,717,1602,377,877],"class_list":["post-12952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-h-2b","tag-h-2b-f8","tag-htv","tag-htv-8","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo","tag-japan","tag-jaxa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}