China successfully launched its Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft on May 30 for its first Tianhe space station core cabin supply mission. In doing so it tested and performed an extremely fast, yet smooth automatic docking of the cargo ship with the Tianhe module, Deng Xioci and Fan Anqi reported in Sunday’s Global Times.
In the past month China has achieved “yet another spectacular milestone", Global Times reported, placing it in the context of the launch of China’s first section of its space station; the Tianhe core cabin on April 9; China’s first interplanetary mission Tianwen-1’s soft landing on Mars of May 16, and Zhurong Mars rover commencing its first trip on the Mars surface on May 22 after its landing with Tianwen-1.
The Tianzhou-2, a cargo craft, dubbed “the delivery guy,” is tasked with refueling the Tianhe space station core cabin for its maintenance in orbit and conducting science experiments in space. Ground logistics technology has been adapted for space on Tianzhou-2; e.g., astronauts can see the location and other information on specific goods by scanning a QR code.