Success: Robotic Japanese spaceship docks with space station (+video)

Two student-designed experiments are also packed aboard Kounotori 3. These projects won the YouTube Space Lab competition, which allowed students between the ages of 14 and 18 to envision space station experiments and describe them in videos submitted to YouTube. The winners were chosen by public voting.

Amr Mohamed, 18, of Alexandria, Egypt, and Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, of Troy, Mich., came out on top, with experiments investigating how microgravity affects the hunting strategy of zebra spiders, and how different nutrients and compounds affect the growth and virulence of bacteria grown in space, respectively.

While Mohamed elected to experience cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia, for his prize, Chen and Ma chose to watch their projects launch aboard Kounotori 3 July 20 from the Tanegashima Space Center.

Six astronauts currently live aboard the $100 billion, football field-size space laboratory. They hail from the United States, Russia and Japan.

Kounotori 3 is just one of a fleet of unmanned cargo delivery spacecraft that carry supplies to the space station. Russia and Europe have each built and launched similar robotic vehicles, and a commercial U.S. spacecraft, Dragon from California company SpaceX, has recently entered the field with its first visit to the station in May.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook & Google+.

• Inside Japan's Huge Space Truck (Infographic)
• Photos: Japan's Robotic Space Cargo Ship Fleet
• Space Station's Robotic Cargo Ship Fleet (A Photo Guide)

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