The Tianzhou-3, a cargo spacecraft carrying supplies to China Space Station, fully separated from its core module Tianhe on Sunday at 10:59 a.m. (BJT), after completing all assigned space station assembly tasks, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).

The Long March-7 Y4 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-3 blasted off at 3:10 p.m. (BJT) on September 20, 2021 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. It carried about six tonnes of goods, including food items and spacesuits to the under-construction China Space Station. Six and a half hours later, the cargo spacecraft docked with core module Tianhe at 10:08 p.m. (BJT) on the same day. 

At present, the Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft is in good condition and will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in the future. It is the third mission of China's Tianzhou-class unmanned cargo spacecraft, and the second resupply mission to China Space Station after Tianzhou-2.

China Space Station Mission 2022

A total of six space flight missions will be carried out in 2022 to complete the in-orbit construction of China Space Station.

So far, a Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft was launched in May. The Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft was also launched in June with three astronauts in the core module stationing in orbit for six months. 

Next step, the Wentian lab module will dock with the Tianhe core module in July, and the Mengtian lab module will be docked with the core module in October to complete the in-orbit construction of China Space Station. Ultimately, a T-shaped complex will then be formed once the construction of the space station is completed.

The Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft will follow, taking another three astronauts to stay in orbit for six months. By then, a total of six astronauts will have conducted handovers in the core module. 

China's first large space station telescope

In addition, the country also plans to launch its first large Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST), or Xuntian, meaning "survey to heavens" in English, in 2023. This sophisticated device has a field view 300 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope while retaining a similar resolution. 

With a huge 2.5-billion-pixel camera, Xuntian will be able to observe up to 40 percent of the sky over 10 years. It will also co-orbit Earth with the Chinese space station and periodically dock with the future crewed outpost.

Xuntian's mission as a space optical observatory also includes investigating the properties of dark matter and dark energy, the cosmos, galaxy formation and evolution.

(CGTN reporter Geng Xiuhui and video editor Lan Haowei also contributed to the story.)

Read More:

China's Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft docks with space station

China's Tianzhou-3 cargo ship launch was a success

Timetable for China's space station construction 2022: 6 more missions