China has taken another step toward its goal of putting a space station into orbit around 2022, by sending its first cargo¹ spacecraft Tianzhou-1 into space on Thursday evening.

 

本周四晚，中国向太空发射首枚货运飞船天舟1号，距离2022年将空间站送入太空的目标又迈进一步。
 

 

Atop a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket, Tianzhou-1 rose into the air from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province at 7:41 p.m.

 

China declared the launch a success after it entered designated orbit minutes later.

 

The cargo ship will dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab where two Chinese astronauts spent 30 days in the country's longest-ever manned space mission, provide fuel and other supplies to the latter, as well as conduct space experiments before falling back to Earth.

 

If the Tianzhou-1 mission is successful, China will become the third country besides Russia and the United States to master the technique of refueling in space.

 

China aims to build a permanent space station that is expected to orbit for at least 10 years, and the debut² of the cargo ship is important as it acts as a courier to help maintain the space station.

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