China will launch its first cargo spacecraft on Thursday, state media said, taking another step towards its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.
President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national security and defence.
The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft will be launched at 7.41pm (1141 GMT), borne aloft on a Long March-7 Y2 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
It is designed to dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or “Heavenly Palace 2”, where two astronauts spent a month in space last October in China’s longest ever manned space mission.
The mission will provide an “important technological basis” for the construction of China’s space station, Xinhua said.