The European cargo spacecraft delivered tons of supply to the outpost

Apr 4, 2012 15:04 GMT  ·  By

Members of the Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have resumed their normal duties yesterday, April 3, following the arrival of a resupply spacecraft last week.

During the weekend, the six astronauts unloaded the cargo stored aboard the third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) space capsule. The vehicle was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the Kourou Spaceport, in French Guiana, South America.

ATV-3, dubbed Edoardo Amaldi, docked autonomously to the aft port of the Russian-built Zvezda service module at 6:31 pm EDT (2231 GMT) on Wednesday, March 28, after spending five days in low-Earth orbit, catching up with the ISS, Space Fellowship reports.

Most of the cargo was removed from the spacecraft on Saturday, when all hands were present on deck for an expedited unload procedure brought on by a busy ISS schedule.