The incremental docking procedure was completed at 10: 45 a.m. EDT, the first for an ESA spacecraft and the most demanding of seven planned ATV missions to resupply the space station, the ESA said.

The spacecraft's automated movements were ordered by controllers at the ESA's ATV control center in Toulouse, France, with assistance from National Aeronautics and Space Administration ISS controllers in Houston and Russian space agency controllers near Moscow.

The Jules Verne now becomes an integral part of the space station for about six months, after which it will be loaded with 6.5 tons of waste, the ESA said. It will then separate from the space station and be incinerated during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.