Mission part of goal to set up permanent manned space station
China plans to launch its first cargo spacecraft in April, state media reported on Tuesday, taking a step towards its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022. President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme, saying it was needed to enhance national security and defence. Plans for the maiden voyage of the cargo spacecraft were reported on the front page of , the official Communist Party newspaper. The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft would be carried into space by a Long March-7 Y2 rocket launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in south China’s island province of Hainan, the daily reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency. The Tianzhou-1 is designed to dock with the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, or “Heavenly Palace 2”, which China used to carry out its longest ever manned space mission last October, sending two astronauts into space for a month aboard the laboratory.
