China’s cargo spacecraft completes third in-orbit refueling

2017-09-16
Xinhua

BEIJING —China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft and Tiangong-2 space lab completed their third and last in-orbit refueling at 8:17 pm on Sept 16.

The third refueling, lasting about three days, confirmed the technical results from the second refueling.

Tianzhou-1, China’s first cargo spacecraft, was launched on April 20 from south China’s Hainan province, and it completed automated docking with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab on April 22.

The two spacecraft completed their first in-orbit refueling on April 27 and second on June 15.

In the past five months, Tianzhou-1 has operated smoothly and completed various tasks.