Japan’s newly developed HTV-X resupply vehicle arrived at the International Space Station in the small hours of Thursday Japan time.
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, successfully caught the craft with a robotic arm around 12:58 a.m. and attached it to the ISS.
“Thank you for entrusting me with this important task today,” Yui said in communication with ground control soon after that.
“Congratulations on the capture,” fellow Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, 56, responded from the control room at NASA in the United States. “Good job.”
The HTV-X is the successor to the Kounotori cargo spacecraft. Nine units of Kounotori successfully reached the ISS between 2009 and 2020.
On Sunday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, launched the seventh H3 rocket carrying the first HTV-X unit from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture.
After entering orbit, the new craft rose gradually and approached to within about 10 meters of the ISS before being caught by Yui, who also captured the fifth Kounotori unit with a robotic arm during his long-term stay at the ISS in 2015.
The HTV-X unit is loaded with fresh food and water as well as carbon dioxide removal equipment for demonstration experiments by JAXA for future lunar and Mars exploration.
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