By Dana S. Mar
The North American Post
The cargo spaceship, Kounotori, launched in December by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency was planned to “catch” space debris orbiting Earth and pull it closer to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The device purposed to accomplish this was a 700-meter-long electrodynamic tether that, according to leading researcher Koichi Inoue, may not have been released during the mission. Technicians had only a week-long span of time to resolve the issues that arose during the mission before Kounotori returned to burn up in the atmosphere. The cargo ship did, however, successfully deliver its supplies to the International Space Station.
