Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned cargo ship arrived Wednesday at the International Space Station carrying a load of food and equipment for the six-man crew at the research outpost. The vessel called Cygnus was grabbed by the space station's robotic arm at 6:36 am (1036 GMT) and completed the berthing procedure that attached the spaceship to the ISS at 1253 GMT, NASA said.
"Cygnus is now hard-mated to the International Space Station's Harmony module," where it will stay for the next four weeks, a commentator said on NASA's live broadcast of the event. The spacecraft, which is shaped like a giant beer keg, launched from Wallops Island, Virginia on Sunday atop an Antares rocket. Astronauts are scheduled to open the hatch on Thursday, but they may do so as early as Wednesday if the work of bolting the cargo ship to the orbiting lab goes faster than planned. The spacecraft is packed with 3,653 pounds (1,657 kilograms) of gear for the space station.