Japan's Kounotori cargo transporter ends final space mission

The last of the Kounotori unmanned cargo vessels ended its final mission Thursday as it burned up re-entering the Earth's atmosphere after transporting supplies to the International Space Station, the country's space agency said.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kounotori 9 left the ISS on Wednesday carrying waste materials from the station, following the delivery of food and water for astronauts, as well as equipment for experiments in May.The Kounotori (which means "stork" in Japanese) cylindrical cargo transporters had successfully transported daily commodities, experimental units…READ FULL ARTICLE