China Launches Cargo Spacecraft for Space Station Construction

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] China has launched its second cargo spacecraft for the construction of its space station.

According to foreign media on the 20th, at around 3:10 PM, the Long March 7 Yao-4 rocket carrying the Tianzhou (天舟) 3 cargo spacecraft was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office officially announced at around 3:30 PM that the launch mission was successfully completed.

Tianzhou 3 is expected to dock with the space station module Tianhe (天和) either tonight or early on the 21st.

Tianzhou 3 carries about 6 tons of various supplies for astronauts who will board the Shenzhou (神舟) 13 manned spacecraft to be launched soon. It is reported that the cargo spacecraft contains drinking water, daily necessities, consumables for spacewalks, and various experimental equipment.

This flight is the fourth mission in China's Tiangong (天宮) space station construction project. In April and May, China launched the core module Tianhe and the cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 2 carrying food and research equipment for the space station construction. In June, three astronauts aboard Shenzhou 12, who had been in space for 90 days, returned to Earth.

Next month, China will send three astronauts aboard Shenzhou 13 to Tianhe. The plan is to complete the construction of the independent space station Tiangong by the end of next year.

The space station China is building is 37 meters long and weighs 90 tons, which is one-third the size of the International Space Station (ISS) jointly operated by the United States and Russia.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.