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China to send cargo spacecraft to Tiangong station, followed by new crew
- Final testing is under way on Tianzhou-3 and carrier rocket to transport supplies next month, source says
- Three more astronauts are to be launched into orbit in October on the Shenzhou-13, which will bring back the current crew
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China plans to send a cargo spacecraft to dock at its new space station next month, to be followed by the Shenzhou-13 in October, which will take three astronauts into orbit and return with the current crew, according to a source.
The person familiar with the space programme on Monday said engineers at the Wenchang launch site in Hainan province were carrying out final testing on the Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft and Long March-7 Y4 rocket in preparation for the mid-September launch.
He said the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft and its carrier rocket had meanwhile been transported to the Jiuquan launch centre in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, for final preparations for its mission.
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The cargo spacecraft will carry supplies to the Tiangong space station – the name means “heavenly palace” – whose core module was sent into orbit in April. Its crew of three have been at the space station since June, and will be brought home by the Shenzhou-13 in October.
These are just the third and fourth of 11 planned missions to finish building the space station, a task expected to be completed next year.
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The Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft and its carrier rocket arrived at the launch site in southern China on Monday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
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