MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) "caught" the Cygnus cargo spacecraft with the Canadarm manipulator. NASA TV broadcasted the process.

Commander Peggy Whitson of NASA and flight engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency captured the Cygnus cargo spacecraft and installed it to the ISS Harmony module at 12.39 GMT (8.39 EDT).

An Atlas-5 rocket carrying Cygnus spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, towards the ISS on April 18. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA telecast the launch live.

Cygnus is carrying 3.5 tonnes of cargoes, including food, instruments, equipment for space walks and computer components for about 250 experiments to be staged during the 51st and 52nd expeditions to the ISS. It also brought the IceCube experimental mini satellite.

After docking with the ISS Cygnus will stay in orbit for about three months. It will be loaded with garbage and waste from the ISS for further disposal.

On Thursday, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and US astronaut Jack Fischer joined the Expedition 51 crew of US Peggy Whitson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and French Thomas Pesquet.