Rocket that will carry Tianzhou ship to space arrives at launch center

The Long March 7 carrier rocket tasked with lifting the Tianzhou 6 cargo spaceship has recently been transported to the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, according to China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said on Monday the rocket arrived at the Wenchang facility on Thursday and will undergo prelaunch checks with the cargo ship in coming days.

Tianzhou 6 is scheduled to dock with the country's Tiangong space station early next month to deliver propellants, science payloads and necessities for the astronauts, according to mission plans previously published.

Before its arrival, the Tianzhou 5 will depart the station to leave the docking hatch open for Tianzhou 6 and then burn itself up during its descent toward Earth.

Designed to function for more than a year, a Tianzhou cargo spaceship has two parts — a cargo cabin and a propulsion section. The vehicles are 10.6 meters long and 3.35 meters wide.

The cargo craft has a liftoff weight of 13.5 metric tons and can transport up to 6.9 tons of supplies to the space station.

The current crew inside the Tiangong — the three members of the Shenzhou XV mission — arrived at the station on Nov 30. Their six-month journey is scheduled to conclude around the end of May, and then the Shenzhou XVI crew will take over.

Orbiting Earth about 400 kilometers above the ground, Tiangong currently consists of three major components — a core module and two science lab modules — and is connected with two visiting craft — the Shenzhou XV crew ship and the Tianzhou 5 cargo ship.