UPDATE: NASA has no plans to buy JAXA transfer vehicles

William Atkins
Monday, 21 July 2008 21:58

Science - Space

As reported by many news sources (but incorrect in their information), NASA announced on July 21, 2008, that the U.S. space agency has no plans to purchase the H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV) from Japan. In fact, NASA has stated it will "depend on [U.S.] commercial resupply of cargo delivery to the station."


As reported in the iTWire article "NASA discussing Japanese purchase of robotic cargo vehicles," it was stated that, based on reports from the major national Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun, NASA was "unofficially" in discussions with the Japanese space agency JAXA for the purchase of several H-2 Transfer Vehicles.

However, a few moments ago, on Monday, July 21, 2008, NASA released a news release entitled "STATEMENT ON INACCURATE REPORTS ABOUT JAPANESE CARGO SERVICES."

The NASA news release (08-181) states,

"Contrary to news reports, NASA has not officially or unofficially been discussing the purchase of H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTV) -- uninhabited resupply cargo ships for the space station -- from the Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA."

The NASA report continues, "NASA is committed to domestic commercial cargo resupply to the space station and does not plan to procure cargo delivery services from Japan. As part of our original agreements as compensation for common system operating costs NASA has limited cargo capability on the Japanese and European cargo vehicles."

And concludes with, "NASA has recently issued a request for proposal for the cargo needs of International Space Station beyond those supplied by our current international agreements. NASA has chosen to depend on commercial resupply of cargo delivery to the station."

According to this statement by NASA, it will be using U.S. made commercial vessels to re-supply the International Space Station once the NASA space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.