Canadian Robotic Arm Captures Japanese “White Stork”

Using the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, Expedition 44 Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully captured JAXA’s Kounotori 5 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5) at 6:28 a.m. EDT. The space station crew and the robotics officer in mission control in Houston will position HTV-5 for berthing to the orbiting laboratory’s Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

NASA TV coverage of the berthing will begin at 9:15 a.m. The installation process to berth HTV-5 to the space station is scheduled to begin at about 9:45 a.m. The Japanese cargo ship, whose name means “white stork” and was chosen because it is emblematic of an important delivery, is loaded with about 4-and-a-half tons of research and supplies.

Follow the conversation on Twitter via @Space_Station and the hashtag #HTV5.