Cargo ship in orbit just below the ISS.
Monday morning at about 6:58 am EDT, the Japanese robotic cargo spaceship HTV-5 arrived at the International Space Station and was grappled by the robotic arm. The craft had blasted off from the Tanegashima launch center in Japan last week on Wednesday.
Grapple complete. Astronauts will use the robotic arm to safely move the craft to its docking port, in order to avoid thruster gases from contaminating the surfaces of station modules and experiments.
HTV-5 (H-II Transfer Vehicle 5) carries 4.5 tons of supplies for the station. These items are critical for the station's operations, as the last year has seen the loss of three important resupply missions to ISS. In October 2014 the Cygnus vessel exploded on the pad, and this year saw the loss of a Russian Progress cargo ship and the destruction of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
Japanese Mission Control.
The HTV-5 is docked at the Node 2 docking port, where the SpaceX Dragon is normally berthed.
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