Beijing : A cargo spaceship carrying supplies for China’s next manned mission to its Tiangong space station has reached the designated orbit and unfolded solar batteries.
The Tianzhou-3 craft is preparing to dock with the orbital outpost, according to the China Manned Space Program. A Long March 7 rocket lifted it off from a launch pad in south China’s Hainan Province at 3:10 p.m. local time (12:10 GMT) on Monday.
“The cargo spaceship successfully separated from the rocket roughly 597 seconds after the launch and ascended to the target orbit. It unfolded solar batteries at 3:22 p.m. The launch was successful,” the space authority said.
This is the second cargo resupply mission to the space station after China launched the outpost’s core module Tianhe in April. A team of three astronauts will fly to the station in October. China plans to complete Tiangong in the low Earth orbit next year.
