Tianzhou 8 cargo vessel lifts off toward space station

The Tianzhou 8 robotic cargo ship was launched on Friday night in Hainan province, becoming the last spacecraft to visit China's Tiangong space station this year.

With the cargo vessel on top of it, a Long March 7 carrier rocket lifted off at 11:13 pm local time from a launch service tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

After a short flight, the rocket placed the Tianzhou 8 into its preset low-Earth orbit and the solar wings on the cargo ship unfolded, marking the successful completion of the launch mission, the agency said.

The spacecraft is scheduled to approach and then dock with the space station's Tianhe core module within three hours after its launch.

As the 15th spaceship to visit Tiangong, Tianzhou 8 is tasked with resupplying propellants to the Chinese space station and delivering living and work necessities for the Shenzhou XIX astronauts, who have been in orbit for two weeks.

The materials inside the cargo vessel are sufficient to support a three-member crew for nine months, according to its designers at the China Academy of Space Technology.

Tianzhou 8's predecessor, Tianzhou 7, undocked from the Tiangong space station on Sunday and started a period of solo flight.

It is programmed to fall back to Earth soon, and most of the spaceship will burn up during reentry, although a small amount of debris is expected to fall into secure areas in the South Pacific Ocean, according to the space agency.

Orbiting Earth at a distance of around 400 kilometers, Tiangong has three permanent parts — a core module and two science capsules — and is regularly connected to several visiting crew and cargo spaceships.