spacetoday.net: HTV berths with ISS

Posted: Sat, Aug 10, 2013, 9:38 AM ET (1338 GMT)
HTV-4 berthing to ISS (NASA)

A Japanese cargo spacecraft successfully rendezvoused with and berthed to the International Space Station on Friday. The HTV-4 spacecraft arrived in the vicinity of the ISS on Friday morning; the station's crew used its robotic arm to grapple the spacecraft at 7:22 am EDT (1122 GMT) Friday. The arm then moved the spacecraft and berthed it to the station several hours later. HTV-4 carries more than 2,400 kilograms of supplies and equipment in the spacecraft's pressurized section, as well as more than 800 kilograms of unpressurized cargo. Included on the HTV-4 mission are a small Japanese talking robot dubbed Kirobo, a new "task board" of components for a robotic spacecraft servicing experiment on the ISS, and several cubesats that will later be released from the ISS. It will remain attached to the station for about a month, leaving in early September to make way for the first Cygnus cargo spacecraft.