MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Japan's first domestic cargo spaceship has been successfully attached to the International Space Station (ISS) with the use of the station's robotic arm, an official from the Russian Mission Control said on Friday.
The HTV-1 unmanned cargo spacecraft was launched on an H-2B rocket last Thursday from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan and arrived at the ISS at 22.26 GMT on Thursday.
"The Japanese cargo spacecraft, which does not have the Kurs laser-guided docking system used on Russian Progress and European ATV freighters, was attached to the U.S. Harmony node of the station with the help of the Canadarm-2 robotic arm," the official said.
The freighter has delivered about 4.5 metric tons of scientific equipment and food supplies to the orbital station on its maiden flight, although it has the capacity to haul up to six metric tons of cargo.
Russian and European unmanned freighters and U.S. space shuttles have so far performed the task of bringing supplies and equipment to the orbital station.
Japan plans to send a total of six space freighters to the ISS until 2015 - one spacecraft per year.
JAXA and NASA officials earlier said the Japanese freighters "will be vital to support the space station's six-person crew once NASA's space shuttle fleet retires in the next year or so."
