Posted: Thu, Feb 24, 2011, 1:57 PM ET (1857 GMT)
A European cargo spacecraft docked with the ISS Thursday morning, clearing the way for the launch later Thursday of the space shuttle. The Automated Transfer Vehicle 2 (ATV-2), also known as Johannes Kepler, docked with the aft port of the Zvezda module of the ISS at 11:08 am EST (1608 GMT) Thursday, nearly eight days after its launch from French Guiana. The spacecraft is carrying about seven tonnes of supplies, including propellant to reboost the station's orbit. The successful docking will allow NASA to proceed with the launch Thursday afternoon of the shuttle Discovery on mission STS-133: had the docking failed for some reason, the shuttle launch might have been postponed to devote communications and other resources to the ISS.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  SPACE.com article
•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  AFP article
•  ESA press release