Video: Soyuz MS-01 leaves the space station for landing

Heading for a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific with several tons of trash, Japan’s fifth HTV cargo craft departed the International Space Station on Monday after overcoming a last-minute snag in the lab’s robotics system.

Japan’s sixth automated logistics vehicle packed with 4.5 tons of supplies approached the International Space Station for a laser-guided rendezvous, culminating with grapple of the HTV cargo craft by the station’s robotic arm at 1037 GMT (5:37 a.m. EST) Tuesday.

A new Russian satellite streaked into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket Friday, carrying high-resolution cameras to survey the globe and a plasma physics experiment to seek out signs of exotic antimatter and dark matter in the cosmos.