INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- History was made once again at the International Space Station Thursday.
The European Space Agency's ATV, called the Jules Verne, has docked with the ISS. ATV stands for Automated Transfer Vehicle.
The Jules Verne has been in space for about a month.
Controllers in France, the United States and Russia carefully monitored the unmanned vehicle as it docked, aiming for a narrow corridor just one-half inch wide, about the diameter of a U.S. dime.
The station crew plans to open the hatch to Jules Verne's pressurized cargo carrier Friday morning to install atmosphere scrubbers to cleanse the air inside the module.
The Jules Verne is carrying 5 tons of cargo. Over the next four months, the station crew will gradually unload more 2,500 pounds of supplies from the cargo module.
Jules Verne will also transfer water, oxygen and refueling propellant to tanks in the Russian segment of the space station.
It is the last big mission for Expedition 16, which began in October of last year. Expedition 17 launches from Russia on April 8 in a Soyuz capsule.
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