China’s space station is set to receive delivery of fresh supplies, experiments, and fuel with the launch of the Tianzhou 6 cargo ship at 9:22 a.m. EDT (1322 UTC) Wednesday aboard a Long March 7 rocket.
The unpiloted supply freighter is expected to automatically dock with China’s Tiangong space station later Wednesday. Three Chinese astronauts aboard the orbiting outpost will open hatches and begin unpacking equipment, while internal valves open to flow propellants from the cargo ship into storage tanks on the station’s Tianhe core module.
The Tianzhou 6 spacecraft debuts an upgraded design, with 20% more payload capacity to carry up to 7.4 metric tons (16,300 pounds) of cargo. The cargo ship also carries about 1,750 kilograms (3,858 pounds) of propellant to support the space station, about 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) of which will refill tanks on the Tiangong space station.
The resupply mission will lift off on a 174-foot-tall (53-meter) Long March 7 rocket from the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island, China’s newest and southernmost spaceport. The launch time of 9:22 a.m. EDT (1322 UTC) is set to coincide with the moment Earth’s rotation brings the launch pad under the flight path of the Tiangong space station, enabling a quick rendezvous and docking.
The Tiangong space station, with its three-person crew, orbits more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth at an inclination of 41.5 degrees to the equator. Tianzhou 6 is the sixth flight of China’s resupply ship, which is similar in purpose to the SpaceX Dragon, Northrop Grumman Cygnus, and Russian Progress cargo ships that regularly deliver equipment to the International Space Station.
It’s the fifth Tianzhou mission to the Tiangong space station, following a test flight to China’s now-decommissioned Tiangong 2 space lab, a testbed used before construction of the larger Tiangong complex. Tianzhou means “heavenly ship” in English.
The Long March 7 rocket will ignite six booster engines to climb off the launch pad at Wenchang with 1.6 million pounds of thrust. An on-board guidance computer will command the rocket to head southeast over the South China Sea, lining up with the Tiangong space station’s orbit.
The Long March 7 is a two-stage rocket augmented with four strap-on boosters. The rocket will consume 45,000 gallons, or 170 cubic meters, of kerosene fuel in combination with cryogenic liquid oxygen during the 10-minute ascent into orbit.
After separating from the Long March 7’s second stage, the Tianzhou 6 spacecraft will deploy solar arrays and start firing thrusters to fine-tune its approach for docking at the Tiangong space station.
Launch of the space station’s next three-person crew is scheduled later this month on China’s Shenzhou 16 mission.
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