China on Saturday successfully launched an automated cargo resupply spacecraft to rendezvous with an orbiting module, in the second of a series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station.
The Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on China’s Hainan Island today (May 29), rising off the pad atop a Long March 7 rocket at 8:55 a.m. EDT (1255 GMT; 8:55 p.m. local time). It deployed its solar arrays as expected and is in good health, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMS).
The uncrewed Tianzhou-2 is carrying 4.69 tons of pressurized cargo and 1.95 tons of propellant, according to Space.com. If everything goes according to plan, the cargo spacecraft will haul these goods to Tianhe, the 22.5-ton core module of China’s planned space station, which was launched on April 28.
Tianzhou has an illustrious history
According to NASA, this latest launch of the Tianzhou 2 marks the second flight of the spacecraft and the first such mission in support of a crew. And the spacecraft has an interesting history, well worth repeating.
April 20, 2017, was the debut mission of the Tianzhou-class unmanned cargo spacecraft. Tianzhou means “heavenly vessel” in Chinese. Tianzhou 1 was launched by a Long March 7 rocket and successfully docked with the Tiangong-2 space laboratory on April 22, 2017.
Tiangong-2 was neither designed nor planned to be a permanent orbital station; instead, it was used to test key technologies that will be used in China’s large modular space station now in orbit. Tiangong-2 subsequently made a controlled re-entry on July 19, 2019, and burned up over the South Pacific Ocean.
Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China’s first self-developed space station around 2022. The new three-module space station will rival the only other station in service, the International Space Station (ISS), according to Reuters.
Tianzhou is designed for a one-way trip to the Chinese space station. At the end of its mission, it will be deorbited and burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere. The arrival of Tianzhou 2 and its supplies will be the last major milestone before the first crewed launch to the station, currently slated for no earlier than June 10 with the Shenzhou 12 mission.
The flight will mark the seventh crewed Chinese spaceflight and the seventh crewed flight of the Shenzhou program.
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.
