Expedition 50 crew members Shane Kimbrough of NASA (left) and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (right) work inside the Cupola module to robotically capture the Japanese HTV-6 cargo craft.
iss050e013731 (Dec. 13, 2016) — Expedition 50 crew members Shane Kimbrough of NASA (left) and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (right) work inside the Cupola module to robotically capture the Japanese HTV-6 cargo craft. HTV-6 launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on Friday, Dec. 9 and arrived at the space station on Tuesday, Dec. 13. The vehicle was loaded with more than 4.5 tons of supplies, water, spare parts and experiment hardware for the six-person station crew, including six new lithium-ion batteries and adapter plates that will replace the nickel-hydrogen batteries currently used on the station to store electrical energy generated by the station’s solar arrays.