China on Saturday sent another spacecraft into space with supplies for its new space station.
A Long March 7 rocket carrying the cargo ship Tianzhou 5 (Heavenly Ship) lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the southern Chinese island of Hainan on Saturday and successfully docked to the recently completed Tiangong (Heaven's Palace) two hours later, the space programme said.
The cargo flight is part of preparations for a historic step in the Chinese space program: the first crew change in space.
Three more astronauts - called taikonauts in China - are expected to follow by the end of the month and live with their colleagues Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe in the recently completed space station.
The current crew is scheduled to return to Earth in December. Tianzhou 5 is the 10th mission to build and supply the space station.
The Tiangong space station underpins China's ambitions to become a space power and to catch up with the major space nations, the United States and Russia.
