China to launch first cargo spacecraft tomorrow

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Press Trust of India Beijing
Last Updated : Apr 19 2017 | 4:48 PM IST
China will launch its first cargo spacecraft tomorrow to dock with the orbiting experimental space station, authorities said today.
Tianzhou-1, the first cargo ship independently developed by China, will be launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province, the office of China's manned space programme said.
A Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket which will launch the spacecraft was transferred from the testing centre to the launch zone in Wenchang.
China currently is in the process of building permanent station by 2022 to rival Russia's International Space Station (ISS).
The spacecraft is expected to dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab and conduct in-orbit refuelling.
The cargo spacecraft will also carry out space experiments, including one on non-Newtonian gravitation, before falling back to earth, earlier reports said.

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First Published: Apr 19 2017 | 4:48 PM IST

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