On May 29 at 12:55 UTC, Tianzhou 2 was launched on a Long March 7 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Tianzhou 2 headed towards a rendezvous with the recently launched Tianhe Core Module of the China Space Station. Docking took place just over eight hours later at 21:01 UTC.

According to Chinese sources, Tianzhou 2 carries consumables for a three-month stay by three crew members and also brings two spacesuits, scientific experiments, station maintenance equipment, in addition to nearly two metric tons of propellant to replenish the station’s onboard propulsion systems. This amounts to nearly seven metric tons of supplies and cargo being delivered to the station.

Similar to the Long March 5B core stage from the launch of the Chinese space station last month, the Long March 7 second stage was left in orbit and should naturally deorbit in about two weeks. It only weighs six tons — much less than the twenty-two-ton 5B core stage — so its smaller parts will stand a better chance of burning up completely and not harming anything on the ground.

The launch of Tianzhou 2 was delayed from May 19 due to repeated technical problems. According to the Chinese space forum 9ifly, leaks in the rocket’s first stage liquid oxygen tank required engineers to climb into service compartments in the rocket to find the issue. These compartments are purged with nitrogen so the engineers needed to carry portable oxygen supplies. This is not easy to do in a confined space, but the leaks were eventually found and repaired.

More Information

China Spaceflight press release

Launch video

Docking video