Japan's new HTV-X1: An Absolutely Gorgeous Spacecraft

vehicle was able to dock to that. Hang on. I've got I've got I've got some uh stuff that I want to pull up. However, it's not >> beautiful vehicle. I didn't realize how pretty it was going to be. It's >> very beautiful vehicle. >> Very beautiful vehicle. Yeah, this is I mean this is their replacement for the original HTV. Much more simplified design and I I think a lot more brilliant design. Um and has so many different uses. This is a footage from Sen um that our our friend Liam Kennedy who was able to to to bring this and um I think that they have really really done something cool with this. Um this is the uh video of when the robotic arm grabbed it. It didn't dock to the space station. It technically burst to the space station. Um but the top module of this is the the pressurized segment that you can see near the top there. Then all of the fuel tanks and all the thrusters are in the middle uh service module. And then they have this external rack on the end of it where they can put external payloads that can be grabbed later by the robotic arm and placed wherever it needs to go, whether it's going to the Japanese KBO module or somewhere on the integrated trust structure on the International Space Station where a whole bunch of host of experiments are mounted. So I think that they really are on to something with this and glad that this has come online. Um, and that they uh the coolest thing to me about this is they've built it in such a way that this could also be used for cy lunar flights and could service the gateway space station or some other lunar space station if we come up with a better plan between now and then. So yeah, congratulations to JAXA, congratulations to Japan and to confirm POTUS had nothing to do with it. Sean Duffy uh was giving credit to POTUS for his leadership and it was just like oh my god we talked about that he even got community noted of no this is a Japanese vehicle and POTUS had nothing to do with it but in any case really awesome to see and glad that this is flying and finally docked at the International Space Station and excited for more things to come. Um I have a suspicion >> pretty this is this is one of Sen's cameras. >> Uh no this one isn't. Uh let me go back to the send camera of >> that was also a gorgeous shot. The top down this one. >> Yeah. Gorgeous shotc. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Absolutely gorgeous shot. There was a couple of them. So go on to Sen's um uh Twitter page and you can find excuse me their X page and you can find a couple of of uh different shots that they've taken of this. They also have been tracking Hurricane Melissa. So, um, some interesting, um, footage they've been able to collect from from the space station of that as well. So, yeah, awesome job. Uh, really glad to see this flying. And interestingly, I think that this might be used on some of the private space stations. Um although not JAXA per se, uh Mitsubishi Heavy Industries does have a large stake in Star Lab, uh which would be using both common birthing um types of of of docking and regular autonomous docking ports. So uh there is a chance that we could see this vehicle be used for future private space stations, potentially even more if other deals are made. So yeah, happy to see this come