A Long March-7 Y5 rocket carrying Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft, with supplies for the Chinese space station under construction, takes off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province, China May 10, 2022. China Daily via REUTERS
BEIJING — An unmanned Chinese cargo spacecraft successfully docked with an orbiting space station module on Tuesday in the sixth of 11 missions needed to finish building China’s first space station by the end of the year.
A Long March-7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-4 spacecraft blasted off at 1:56 a.m. Beijing time (1756 GMT Monday) from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern Hainan province.
Tianzhou-4 docked with Tianhe, the core module of the space station, at 8:54 a.m. Beijing time (0054 GMT), China Manned Space Agency said on Tuesday.
The cargo spacecraft transported propellants, application experiments samples, some payloads and supplies for three astronauts, the agency said.
Three astronauts will travel to Tianhe in June on the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and live and work onboard the module for six months.
China aims to complete the construction of its first space station this year, being a key rival of the world’s only station – NASA’s International Space Station.
RELATED STORIES
China’s ‘space dream’: A Long March to the Moon and beyond
Chinese astronauts arrive at space station for longest mission
Chinese astronauts return after 90-day mission to space station
2021: A year of space tourism, flights on Mars, China’s rise