Once attached, the tether would slow down the object, forcing it to re-enter into Earth’s atmosphere where it would burn up.JAXA, the Japanese space agency, had launched the KITE experiment aboard the HTV-6, a spacecraft which had first docked with the International Space Station , bringing supplies for the crew. After dropping off the goods and being refilled with ISS trash, the spacecraft was to deploy a 2,300-foot-long tether to lasso space junk and drag it back to Earth.