Moscow. September 20. INTERFAX-The Chinese launch vehicle "Changzheng-7" with the cargo spacecraft "Tianzhou-3" successfully turned on the engines and headed for the Tiangong space station under construction, the Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN) broadcasts the launch.
The rocket was launched from the Wenchang Cosmodrome at 10: 10 Moscow time.
The "truck" will deliver supplies, fuel and equipment for the three-person crew of the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft, which is expected to arrive at the station at the end of October and will stay there for 6 months.
According to the developers, Tianzhou-3 is able to deliver fuel, supplies, various sealed cargo, a large payload for extravehicular activities, as well as platforms for conducting experiments to the station. The total mass of the possible payload that the device can deliver to the station is about 6.8 tons.
Earlier, on May 30 of this year, the second device of this series "Tianzhou-2" successfully docked to the base module of the station under construction - "Tianhe". He delivered fuel and supplies to the station for the crew who arrived at the station on the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft on June 17.
The first cargo spacecraft of this series, Tianzhou-1, was launched to the Tiangong-2 space Laboratory on April 20, 2017 from the Wenchan Cosmodrome and reached it on April 22. As part of this mission, specialists tested the ability of the spacecraft to rendezvous, dock and refuel a manned spacecraft.
The first Chinese "truck" undocked from the space laboratory on September 17, 2017, after which it moved to the autonomous part of its mission - conducting experiments in orbit. Subsequently, the cargo ship was taken out of orbit and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.