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, or "Heavenly Vessel" in Chinese, blasted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China's first self-developed space station around 2022, and follows the launch of the key module Tianhe in late April. The three-module space station will rival the only other station in service, the International Space Station , which is backed by countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the United States.
Tianzhou-2 will autonomously dock with Tianhe, which will provide supplies for future astronauts as well as propellant to maintain its orbital altitude.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 the construction of the space station.