China's Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft docks with space station module

SHENZHEN • China's cargo spacecraft, carrying supplies, equipment and propellant, docked with the space station's key module Tianhe yesterday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Tianzhou-2, or "Heavenly Vessel" in Chinese, autonomously rendezvoused and docked with Tianhe at 5.01am Beijing time, Xinhua said yesterday.

It blasted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket at 8.55pm Beijing time on Saturday from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.

With a designed life of more than one year, Tianzhou-2 carried supplies for future astronauts including food for the crew of the Shenzhou-12 which will be launched next month for a three-month stay on the station, as well as two tonnes of propellant.

Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China's first self-developed space station around next year, and follows the launch of Tianhe, the first module, late last month.

The three-module space station will rival the International Space Station (ISS), which is backed by countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the US.

The rocket's launch was postponed this month due to technical reasons, state media said.

The first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 was sent to refuel a space lab - Tiangong-2 - three times in 2017, as a test of the technologies needed to support construction of the space station.

Next year, China will launch the two other core modules - Wentian and Mengtian - using the Long March-5B, its biggest and most powerful space transport vehicle.

That rocket, capable of sending 25 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit, was a source of worry earlier this month as it re-entered the atmosphere after delivering Tianhe into orbit.

Media reports warned of an uncontrolled re-entry of the rocket's core stage, reviving memories of debris from the flight of the first Long March-5B in May last year, which damaged buildings in Ivory Coast.

Remnants from the rocket earlier this month finally fell harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, but China drew criticism for not being transparent about the timing of the debris re-entry and predictions of its trajectory.

From next month till next year, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft will also be launched, by the smaller Long March-7 and 2F rockets, which have a maximum low Earth payload of 14 tonnes and 8.8 tonnes, respectively.

REUTERS