China is planning to launch its first unmanned cargo spacecraft to transport supplies to its future space station in April, the People's Daily reported.
The Tianzhou-1 will be able to transport six tonnes, which exceeds the capacity of current Chinese spacecrafts that can carry a maximum of three astronauts and 300kg of material.
The module will arrive next Monday at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre, in southeastern China, where it will be assembled and tested, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The Tianzhou-1 will be launched aboard the Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket, which China tested successfully recently to transport modules of the space station.
The Tianzhou-1 has a take-off weight of around 13 metric tonnes and can remain in orbit for a period of three months, during which it will dock at the Tiangong-2 space lab to refuel and conduct research.
Tianzhou-1 has been designed to carry large quantities of food, water, oxygen and support materials for resident astronauts when China's permanent space station becomes fully operational.
China is expected to send the central module of the orbital space station in 2018, and hopes to have an 80-tonne preliminary structure in place by 2020.
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