Video: Change of command aboard International Space Station

Five days after launching from Japan, an HTV supply ship arrived Monday at the International Space Station. Capture of the HTV with the station’s robotic arm occurred at 8:13 a.m. EDT (1213 GMT). It’s the last cargo mission to the space station before the arrival of two NASA astronauts on the first crewed U.S. flight to the orbiting research facility since 2011.

Ground crews loaded time-critical experiments, including 20 mice to help scientists study muscle atrophy, into SpaceX’s commercial Dragon cargo capsule Thursday, a day before a launch planned from Cape Canaveral toward the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-01 capsule safely returns to Earth, bringing back Expedition 49 commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency after a 115-day mission that spanned 48.6 million miles to the International Space Station.