A Chinese cargo vessel docked with the country's under-construction space station Tuesday ahead of a new three-person crew expected to arrive next month.
The Long March-7 Y5 rocket was used to carry the space craft into space. State media said it arrived at the station seven hours later.
Supplies for the next crew, along with research equipment and spare parts, are on the cargo vessel.
After six months on the station, the last crew returned to Earth last month.
The station will be finished this year with the addition of two laboratory modules in July and October to link with the living module that was launched in April 2021. The station has another cargo craft docked.
China became the third country to use its own resources to launch a space program in 2003 after the former Soviet Union and the U.S.
It has landed robot rovers on the moon and Mars. There is a possibility of a crewed mission to the moon, as China has returned samples from the moon.
The government announced in 2020 that China had its first re-entries after a test flight, but no photos or details have been released.
The United States does not want China to be part of the International Space Station because of the Communist Party's military wing.
The crewed mission is going to stay for six months. The station will have six people on board for the first time when three more astronauts are launched on the same mission in six months.
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