Second-stage capture is complete! The HTV is hard-mated to the International Space Station where it will remain through Sept. 6 to deliver tons of supplies, science gear and spare parts.

The astronauts plan to ingress the freighter Saturday at about 7:20 a.m. EDT (1120 GMT).

External payload transfers are on tap for August 6.

Sixteen bolts are gradually being driven in the common berthing mechanism to finish the attachment of the HTV to the space station. The first-stage of that operation has been performed. Final bolt tightening is next.

The HTV has arrived in the ready-to-latch position in contact with the downward-facing port of the Harmony module. A two-stage process to engage 16 remotely controlled, electrically driven bolts is upcoming to structurally affix the 35,000-pound freighter to the space station.

Hoshide is driving the robot arm to seat the HTV into the Earth-facing port on Harmony.

At the controls of the Canadarm2 for the berthing operations of HTV today is Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide. He is maneuvering the freighter into the pre-install waypoint.

With the crew running ahead of schedule, the live berthing coverage is now underway in our video stream.

Berthing of Kounotori 3 onto the Earth-facing docking port on the Harmony connecting module will be coming up a little later this morning. Coverage will begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

The grappled occurred over the southern Indian Ocean outside of the live television downlink window but within orbital daylight that the crew preferred.

GRAPPLE CONFIRMED. The International Space Station has a firm grip on the Japanese Kounotori 3 cargo freighter at an altitude of 253 miles above Earth!

The Canadarm2 is now in motion, moving in the final distance to snare the grappling fixture on the side of Kounotori 3.

Standing by for HTV to be placed into free-drift before Joe Acaba reaches in with the robot arm.

Mission Control just gave the space station crew the "go" for capture of the HTV with the lab's robot arm. That news was radioed up from Houston by CAPCOM Cady Coleman, who actually performed the capture of HTV 2 last year.

The astronauts and the ground are using this time to verify all is in readiness to retrieve the free-flying HTV using Canadarm2. The cargo ship, the third of seven supplied by Japan for the International Space Station, was launched last Friday night from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The HTV has arrived at the capture point 33 feet below the outpost's Kibo module. Veteran NASA astronaut Joe Acaba will soon maneuver the robot arm toward the spacecraft's grapple fixture.

The HTV should arrive at the final hold point 33 feet below the space station in about two minutes.

The payload aboard HTV 3 includes are 61 percent spare parts, 20 percent science equipment, 15 percent food and 4 percent crew supplies. Notable cargo inside the freighter include a new environmental-monitoring camera, a deployer system to launch five tiny satellites from the space station and the Aquatic Habitat for the laboratory.

And there is an external pallet holding a diverse Japanese experiment package and a NASA communications testbed payload that will be extracted from HTV using the robotic arm on August 6.

Station crew members and control teams in Houston and Japan are evaluating the craft's flight path toward the complex. The HTV must stay within a tight corridor during this phase of approach for the robot arm to grapple the free-flying satellite.

HTV should arrive in the capture position at 8:09 a.m. EDT. Grapple is planned for 8:20 a.m. EDT.

The HTV has commenced its final approach to a capture point about 33 feet below the space station. The astronauts are standing by with a control panel to issue an abort or retreat command should the spacecraft drift out of its rendezvous corridor.

Expedition 32 flight engineers Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA are inside the station's seven-window cupola module at the robot arm controls.

Mission Control in Houston has given its "go" for the HTV's final approach to the capture point just below the space station.

Waiting for television window would mean the capture occurs in the dark. The crew reports one of the cameras on the robot arm gets fuzzy in darkness and the preference is a daylight capture.

Mission Control is considering delaying the capture about 7 minutes -- to 8:27 a.m. EDT -- to ensure a live television downlink session is available for the event.

The station crew is now participating in a capture briefing to go review final procedures for today's HTV capture one last time.

And here comes the sunlight.

The HTV has arrived at the next pre-planned hold point about 98 feet below the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module.

The craft is scheduled to remain at this hold point for about 20 minutes before pressing into the capture box about 33 feet from the space station for the Canadarm2 to reach out and grab the freighter.

It is dark outside the complex right now, but orbital sunrise is expected in about 10 minutes.

Now about 290 feet separating the two vehicles in orbit.

Mission Control now projects the grapple of HTV to occur around 8:20 a.m. EDT, roughly 15 minutes later than originally targeted.

The distance between the two spacecraft has narrowed to 360 feet.

The HTV has departed a pre-planned hold point at 250 meters, or 820 feet, below the space station to continue moving closer to the outpost. The rendezvous plan had called for the spacecraft to stop at this location while engineers on the ground verified all was acceptable to continue the approach.

The spacecraft should now be working with navigation data from its laser sensor, which shoots beams of light toward reflectors mounted on the bottom of the station for precise range and closing rate information.

Good day and welcome to our live coverage of Kounotori 3's arrival at the International Space Station. The spacecraft has been traveling six-and-a-half days from the launch pad to the orbiting complex to deliver about 7,000 pounds of internal supplies and 1,000 pounds of external payloads. Capture is expected about an hour from now.

An unmanned Japanese rocket carrying more than five tons of space station hardware, scientific gear and crew supplies vaulted away from its scenic seaside launch stand in southern Japan Friday (U.S. time) and set off on weeklong flight to the International Space Station.

Read our full story.

SPACECRAFT SEPARATION! The H-2 Transfer Vehicle has been deployed from the H-2B rocket's upper stage, setting the stage for the ship's rendezvous with the International Space Station next Friday around 1200 GMT (8:00 a.m. EDT).

The cargo vessel will fly within about 40 feet while Expedition 32 flight engineers Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to grapple the vehicle and berth it to a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node.

CUTOFF. The second stage engine has shut down as planned as the rocket flies northeast of the island of New Guinea.

Spacecraft separation should occur in about a minute.

T+plus 13 minutes. The second stage's single LE-5B engine will turn off at T+plus 14 minutes, 20 seconds to wrap up the powered phase of today's launch.

The rocket is shooting for an orbit with an apogee of 186 miles, a perigee of 124 miles, and an inclination of about 51.6 degrees.

The vehicle is 288 km in altitude, traveling at 6,500 meters per second.

T+plus 11 minutes. The rocket is flying over the far western Pacific Ocean and now out of range of a ground station at the Tanegashima Space Center. A downrange station in Guam is now tracking the rocket.

Performance remains right on target, accelerating to orbital velocity in pursuit of the International Space Station.

T+plus 9 minutes. The cryogenic upper stage continues firing. This is a planned 8-minute, 19-second burn to inject the HTV into orbit.

Eight minutes into the flight, The vehicle is 256 km in altitude, traveling at 5,600 meters per second and tracking along the proper trajectory.

All is looking good seven-and-a-half minutes into the flight of H-2B.

And the upper stage LE-5B engine has ignited to propel the rocket the rest of the way to orbit.

The LE-7A main engines have shut down on time and the spent first stage has separated from the second stage.

The vehicle is 151 km in altitude, traveling at 3,900 meters per second.

T+plus 4 minutes. The H-2B rocket's LE-7A main engines continue firing and there are no reports after any problems aboard the rocket.

JAXA confirms the two-piece payload fairing has been released from the rocket after it has traversed the dense lower layers of the atmosphere.

The first stage is burning well three minutes into flight. Attitude control, flight trajectory and combustion inside the two LE-7A first stage engines are all normal, JAXA reports.

The rocket's four strap-on boosters have burned out and jettisoned in two pairs. H-2B continues to power to orbit on its two liquid-fueled main engines.

T+plus 1 minute. The H-2B rocket has powered through the sound barrier as it plots a course southeast from the launch site to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

LIFTOFF! Liftoff of Japan's Kounotori 3 spacecraft, delivering supplies and science to the International Space Station!

T-minus 60 seconds and counting. Thousands of gallons of water are now being poured over the launch platform to cushion the structure from intense acoustic vibrations at launch. In the countdown's final minute, the rocket will be armed and the guidance system will start.

The ignition sequence of the two first stage engines begins 5.2 seconds before liftoff.

T-minus 90 seconds. The first and second stage propellant systems have been readied for launch.

T-minus 2 minutes. At the time of launch, the International Space Station will be 255 miles over the South Pacific, off the coast of Chile.

T-minus 3 minutes and counting. The H-2B rocket should be transitioning to internal power at this time. Everything remains set for liftoff at 0206:18 GMT.

T-minus 4 minutes and counting. The latest check of the weather is 82 degrees F and light rain.

T-minus 4 minutes, 30 seconds. The automatic countdown sequence has started.

T-minus 5 minutes and counting. Weather conditions at Tanegashima remain favorable for an on-time launch. And a status check of downrange tracking stations indicate they are ready to support.

In the final minutes of the countdown, an automated sequencer will control the final crucial steps before launch.

The automatic sequence will begin at T-minus 4 minutes, 30 seconds and computers will pressurize the H-2B's propellant tanks for flight at T-minus 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

At T-minus 3 minutes, the launcher will transition to internal battery power and remove external power.

Water will be released onto the launch pad deck beginning at T-minus 73 seconds to help suppress sound and acoustics during the ignition and liftoff.

The vehicle's pyrotechnic and ordnance systems will be armed at T-minus 30 seconds and the rocket's guidance system initializes at T-minus 18 seconds. Batteries controlling solid rocket booster ignition are activated at T-minus 15 seconds.

Sparklers underneath the rocket's two main engines ignite at T-minus 11.7 seconds to burn off residual hydrogen that could be an explosive hazard at main engine start.

T-minus 8 minutes and counting. The terminal countdown has started at the Tanegashima Space Center for an on-time launch tonight.

T-minus 9 minutes and counting. A final "go" for launch has been given. There are no technical issues and weather conditions are within limits for flight of the H-2B rocket.

T-minus 10 minutes and counting. The payload aboard HTV 3 includes are 61 percent spare parts, 20 percent science equipment, 15 percent food and 4 percent crew supplies.

T-minus 15 minutes and counting. It is 81 degrees and overcast at the Tanegashima Space Center for today's launch.

The H-2 Transfer Vehicle weighs about 35,000 pounds at launch. That mass includes 7,000 pounds of supplies, equipment and spare hardware for the International Space Station stuffed in bags and racks that the astronauts will unload through the Harmony module. And there is an external pallet holding about 1,000 pounds of equipment, comprised of a diverse experiment package and a NASA communications testbed payload that will be extracted from HTV using the robotic arm on August 6.

T-minus 30 minutes and counting. The International Space Station flight control team in Houston reports they are "go" for launch. The H-2 Transfer Vehicle, the 33-foot-long payload for today's launch, will arrive at the orbiting lab next Friday morning for capture by the lab's robotic arm.

In the last few hours, launch officials completed a series of communications checks between the ground and the H-2B rocket.

The 186-foot-tall H-2B rocket is sitting at Launch Pad No. 2 of the Yoshinobu launch complex situated on rocky outcrop at the southeastern tip of Tanegashima Island. The Yoshinobu launch complex was built for the H-2 rocket program that began operations in 1994 and has since been modified for use by the more powerful and reliable H-2A rocket family.

Launch Pad No. 1 of the Yoshinobu range hosts H-2A rockets and Launch Pad No. 2 is designed for the larger H-2B rocket, which was designed specifically for the H-2 Transfer Vehicle. The primary difference between the pads is the presence of a fixed umbilical tower at Pad 1, while Pad 2 features a "clean pad" concept and just a mobile umbilical tower attached to the launch platform.

In all, 30 rockets to date have departed Earth from the Yoshinobu complex since 1994. The most recent flight was an H-2A rocket launch in May.

Familiarize yourself with the major events of today's launch. It will take about 15 minutes for the H-2B rocket to deliver the space station cargo freighter to orbit.

Also view a map of the trajectory the rocket will follow into space.

With less than an hour to go until liftoff, launch officials have issued approval to enter the final 60 minutes of the countdown.

The final hour of the countdown will prepare the rocket, the H-2 Transfer Vehicle, and ground systems for flight.

Today's launch is timed for precisely 0206:18 GMT (10:06:18 p.m. EDT; 11:06:18 a.m. local time), when the Earth's rotation will bring Tanegashima into the orbital path of the space station. The rocket must launch at the appointed time because there is no launch window available.

The rocket is now fully fueled to liftoff, but cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant continues to trickle into the vehicle to replace the fluid as it boils off.

JAXA officials just gave a "go" for cryogenic propellant loading after reviewing the status of the countdown and weather conditions at Tanegashima. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded into the H-2B rocket's first and second stages.

Tanking will begin with a chilldown procedure to condition the rocket and propellant plumbing for the super-cold temperatures of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. When fueling begins, officials will establish a 3,000-meter keep-out zone around the Yoshinobu launch complex.

Japan rolled its powerful H-2B rocket to the launch pad this morning at Tanegashima Space Center, where the vehicle will undergo fueling and final preparations for liftoff tonight on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station.

The 186-foot-tall rocket traveled by rail about 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, from Tanegashima's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad No. 2 at the space center's oceanfront launch complex. The transfer took about 30 minutes, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

Launch officials convened a few hours before rollout to assess weather conditions at Tanegashima, an island off the southern coast of Kyushu. The space center is positioned on the southeastern flank of the picturesque island. The caucus granted approval to proceed with launch plans.

Technicians went to work connecting the rocket's mobile launch platform to propellant, communications and electrical systems at the pad. Filling of the H-2B with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is expected to begin around 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT).

Both stages of the rocket burn cryogenic propellant.

Liftoff is scheduled for 0206 GMT (10:06 p.m. EDT) tonight. We will have live updates and streaming video on this page.

After turning southeast from Tanegashima and climbing into space, the rocket will deploy the 35,000-pound H-2 Transfer Vehicle about 15 minutes after blastoff.

The HTV is full of scientific equipment, provisions and other supplies for the six-person crew aboard the space station. The spacecraft is supposed to arrive at the outpost next Friday, July 27.

The mission is nicknamed Kounotori 3, which means white stork. It will remain attached to the space station through Sept. 6.

It is the third of seven planned HTV flights by Japan, each occurring at one-year intervals in support of the international outpost.