A Chinese cargo spacecraft carrying equipment and supplies successfully docked with the core module of the country's future space station on Sunday.
The Long March-7 Y3 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft, blasted off late Saturday from the Wenchang launch site on the tropical southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Agency announced.
10 missions in total will be carried out by China to complete the assembly of the space station, named Tiangong, in orbit. The station is expected to become fully operational in 2022. Once completed, it is expected to remain in low Earth orbit for up to 15 years. With the cargo craft being docked, China plans to begin preparations to send three astronauts up to unpack the goods, which include meals.