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Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions required to complete China’s first permanent space station.
China has successfully launched an automatic spacecraft to supply cargo with an orbital module in its second series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station.
The Tianzhou-2, or Heavenly Ship in Chinese, exploded via a long Y3 rocket on March 7 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the South China Sea on the southern island of Hainan, China’s Manipulated Space Engineering Bureau said on Saturday.
Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions required to complete China’s first self-developed space station around 2022, and key module Tianhe at the end of April.
Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, is the third and largest orbital station launched by China’s increasingly ambitious space programs.
The three-module space station will compete with the only other station in service, the International Space Station (ISS), which is backed by countries such as the United States, Russia and Japan.
The US banned China from participating in the ISS. Washington is wary of the secrecy surrounding the Chinese program and its military ties.
Tianzhou-2 will dock autonomously with Tianhe, which will provide supplies for future astronauts, as well as a propellant to maintain its orbital height.
The rocket launch was delayed this month for technical reasons, state media said.
The Tianzhou-1 first cargo spacecraft was sent three times in 2017 to supply the space laboratory (Tiangong-2) as a test of the technologies needed to assist in the construction of the space station.
Tiangong-2 and the previous space laboratory Tiangong-1 have been exorbitant in recent years.
Next year, China will launch two other basic modules – Wentian and Mengtian – March Long 5B, using the largest and most powerful space transportation vehicle.
The rocket, which was capable of sending 25 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, was a source of concern when it re-entered the atmosphere after entering Tianhe’s orbit earlier in May.
The media warned of the “uncontrolled” entry into the basic stage of the widespread rocket launch, recalling the remnants of a long March 5B long flight that took place in May 2020, which damaged buildings when it landed in Côte d’Ivoire.
Traces of the rocket eventually fell unharmed into the Indian Ocean, but China was criticized for not being transparent at the time of the re-entry of the debris and in the predictions of its trajectory.
From June to 2022, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft will also be launched, the smallest rockets of March 7 and 2F, with a maximum maximum payload of 14 tons and 8.8 tons on Earth, respectively.
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