July 16, 2018 - Supply Run

Supply Run The Japanese HTV-6 cargo vehicle is seen here on final approach to the International Space Station. HTV-6 launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on December 9, 2016, and arrived at the ISS four days later. The uncrewed vehicle held 4.5 tons of supplies for the six-person ISS crew, including water, spare parts, experiment hardware, and six new lithium-ion batteries that replaced 12 older nickel-hydrogen batteries used on the ISS to store electrical energy generated by the station’s solar arrays. Seen here, the ISS’s robot arm, Canadarm2, is ready to grapple HTV-6 prior to berthing it to the station. Also visible is the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, another station robot. Later, after HTV-6 was filled with ISS trash, it undocked from the station and burned up during re-entry.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

July 16 - 22, 2018

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 16

Venus 1.6° south of Moon

1969: Apollo 11 launched
1994: First fragment of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts Jupiter
2011: Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around Vesta

Tuesday 17

1850: John Adams Whipple takes first stellar photograph (Vega)
1970: Final HL-10 lifting body flight
1975: Apollo-Soyuz dock in orbit
1984: Soyuz T-12 launched, 100th human space flight

Wednesday 18

1921: John Glenn born
1966: Gemini X launched
1980: India becomes seventh nation to launch its own satellite

Thursday 19

First Qtr Moon 3:52 PM ET

1846: Edward Pickering born
1967: Explorer 35 launched
1985: NASA selects Christa McAuliffe as first teacher to travel in space

Friday 20

Jupiter 4° south of Moon

1969: Apollo 11 astronauts become first humans walk on Moon
1976: Viking 1 lands on Mars
1999: Liberty Bell 7 capsule recovered from Atlantic Ocean after 38 years