CHINA launched cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-7 on Wednesday night to deliver supplies for its orbiting Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The Long March-7 Y8 rocket, carrying Tianzhou-7, blasted off at 10:27 p.m. from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan.

Tianzhou-7 docked with the orbiting Tiangong space station Thursday, the CMSA said.

Wednesday’s launch is the first mission of China’s manned space project this year. It is also the 507th mission of the Long March rocket series.

The cargo craft and launch vehicle were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, both of which are affiliated with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Tianzhou-7 is the seventh cargo craft developed by the CAST. It carries more than 260 items of supplies, including those for the astronaut system, space station system, application tasks, and cargo spacecraft system, as well as other engineering goods, featuring a variety of cargo and large-sized items.

Customized cargo packages for experiment payloads and other large-scale goods, each weighing over 100 kilograms, will be applied in the operation of the space station, space science experiments, and astronaut life support.

Tianzhou-7 also sends 2,400 kilograms of living supplies for the astronauts, including Lunar New Year goods and fresh fruits and vegetables. The packaging design has been optimized to ensure longer storage time and freshness.

The application system has loaded Tianzhou-7 with a total of 61 items weighing 473 kilograms, including experiment payloads, experiment units and samples, consumable items, and spare parts, to support continuous space experiments, according to Liu Wei, a researcher at the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Those items will be transferred to the space station’s experiment facility to carry out a total of 33 scientific experiments, such as the effect of space microgravity on human bone cells, the propellant fluid transport and stability under variable gravity, and the growth of nano precious metals in solution under microgravity.

(Xinhua)