Yesterday, the Chinese cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 3 reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module. It was launched about 6.5 hours earlier on a Long March-7 Y4 rocket from the Wenchang base. This is the second cargo spacecraft launched to the new Chinese space station and carries propellant along with supplies of various kinds for the taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, who will arrive in October.
The bottom image (Courtesy Guo Zhongzheng/Xinhua) shows a screenshot of an animation from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center showing the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft docking with the Tianhe module on its right side. On the left side is docked the Tianzhou 2 space freighter, which was originally docked on the other side but was relocated last Saturday. Tianzhou 2 will remain docked with Tianhe to conduct more tests such as propellant refueling. In some cases, tests are conducted when the station is uncrewed for safety reasons.
Information on the cargoes carried by the Tianzhou 3 freighter is very limited. Among the nearly 6 tons of cargoes, the presence of a backup spacesuit of the type used for extravehicular activities, propellant, experiments, and other equipment was revealed.
The arrival of the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft soon follows the return to Earth of the first Tianhe module crew at the end of the Shenzhou 12 mission. Tianhe will remain uninhabited for a few weeks because the Shenzhou 13 mission is scheduled to launch around mid-October to spend about six months in the module. The identity of the Shenzhou 13 mission taikonauts is still confidential.
The Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft’s mission was a success. The spacecraft will remain docked with the Tianhe module for a few months. It wasn’t designed to return to Earth, so it will be used to eliminate garbage and any tools that have become useless or have failed making them disintegrate together with Tianzhou 3 re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. This mission continues on schedule the Chinese space station’s development operations, part of the ambitious national space program.
