Cargo ship gets to space station ahead of shuttle Discovery

Cargo ship gets to space station ahead of shuttle Discovery
A huge European cargo ship linked up with the International Space Station Thursday, delivering tons of supplies for the outpost's crew just hours before NASA's planned launch of the shuttle Discovery.

The robotic spacecraft, which is the size of a double-decker bus, docked with the space station at 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT) as the two vehicles soared high over the Atlantic Ocean. Known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle 2, or ATV-2, the hefty space freighter is packed with 7 tons of supplies for the station's six-person crew.

"Contact confirmed, capture confirmed," Russian cosmonauts on the station radioed mission control after the successful docking.

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Beating NASA's space shuttle
The cargo ship hooked up with the space station less than six hours before the space shuttle Discovery's planned launch toward the orbiting laboratory, clearing the way for the orbiter's flight, NASA officials said.

NASA had already fueled Discovery for a 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT) launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., at the time of the docking in space. The six astronauts set to launch on Discovery were apparently keeping track of the ATV-2 docking even as the geared up for their own flight.

"ATV docking complete! ISS just got bigger," Discovery astronaut Nicole Stott wrote in a Twitter post. "Congrats to ESA and all the station partners around the world!

If Discovery launches on time, the shuttle will arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday. It is the final flight of space shuttle Discovery before the orbiter is retired later this year.