cnet.com
September 17, 2009 3:48 PM PDT

Japanese cargo ship completes smooth docking

by William Harwood

Japan's new HTV cargo ship, carrying more than 7,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, was plucked out of open space by the International Space Station's robot arm Thursday to complete a near-flawless automated rendezvous marking a major milestone for the station program.

Arm operator Nicole Stott, working inside the Destiny laboratory module, locked the station's space crane onto the HTV cargo ship at 3:47 p.m. EDT as the two spacecraft moved into orbital darkness 220 miles above Eastern Europe.

"It's a real example of international cooperation with a Japanese vehicle captured by a Canadian arm with American and European astronauts ... under the command of a Russian commander," said Frank De Winne, a European Space Agency astronaut. "It's really true international cooperation."