According to the plan, the space truck will be sent to orbit next week
BEIJING, May 16. /TASS/. The launch vehicle "Changzheng-7" with the Chinese orbital truck "Tianzhou-2" was delivered on Sunday to the launch pad in Wenchang on the island of Hainan. This was reported by the Office of the Manned Space Flight Program of the People's Republic of China on its page on the social network WeChat.
A launch readiness check will be conducted in the near future. "All the equipment is working properly," the report says.
According to the plan, the space truck will be sent into orbit next week.
On April 29, China launched the main module of the national space station using the Changzheng-5 heavy launch vehicle. The upcoming docking with Tianzhou-2 will mark the beginning of a key stage in its construction.
The Chinese station will be located at an altitude of 340 to 450 km and is expected to last for more than a decade. It is designed for three astronauts (up to six for a short time when changing the crew). The mass of the T-shaped complex, which has three docking nodes and a gateway for entering space, will be 66 tons, the volume of the compartments will reach 110 cubic meters.
It is expected that the station will be operational in 2022 and, as promised by the Chinese authorities, will be available for international projects.
