天舟六號
——中國空間站的“快遞小哥”

湖北 左 琴

The first spacecraft to visit China's Tiangong space station this year——the Tianzhou 6 robotic cargo ship,was launched on the evening of May 10th to transport materials for the next manned missions.

After a short flight,the rocket placed Tianzhou 6 into a low-Earth orbit.The threestorey cargo ship then traveled for a few hourstorendezvous（會合）withtheTiangong station and dock with the massive outpost.

Tianzhou 6 is carrying about 260 packages with a combined weight of nearly 5.8 metric tons,including supplies to sustain the three-member crew for 280 days.The food packages contain about 70 kilograms of fresh fruits,double those carried by the Tianzhou 5.In addition,there are 98 packages of scientific equipment,which weigh 714 kilograms and include spare parts and experimental materials.

The expansion in capacity of Tianzhou 6 means China will need to launch a Tianzhou mission every eight months,instead of every six months,as previously.The vehicles are 10.6 meters long and 3.35 meters wide.It is the world's best space cargo transporter when it comes to carrying capacity——more than half of its 13.5-ton lift-off weight can be used for payloads,according to designers.

Tiangong's current inhabitants——the three members of the Shenzhou XV mission arrived at the station on November 30th.At present,the Shenzhou XV astronauts——mission commander Major General Fei Junlong,Senior Colonel Deng Qingming and Senior Colonel Zhang Lu——have conducted four spacewalks to mount equipment required for extravehicular scientific experiments and technological demonstrations.

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