China launches robotic cargo mission to space station

A Long March 7 rocket carrying cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 10 blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province, May 11, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]

China launched the Tianzhou 10 robotic cargo mission on Monday morning in Hainan province, sending supplies and propellants to the Tiangong space station.

The cargo vessel's carrier — a 53-meter-tall Long March 7 rocket — lifted off at 8:14 am from a launch service tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan's southeastern coast.

After a short flight, the rocket placed the Tianzhou 10 into its preset low-Earth orbit, and the solar wings on the spacecraft unfolded, marking the successful completion of the launch mission.

As the 20th spaceship and the ninth cargo craft to connect with Tiangong, Tianzhou 10 is carrying nearly 6.2 metric tons of mission necessities, science equipment, and about 700 kilograms of fuel.

The cargo includes a new spacewalk suit, a new treadmill and six sets of experimental instruments, which cover scientific experiments in microgravity and fluid physics as well as new spacecraft technological tests.

According to its designers at the China Academy of Space Technology, the Tianzhou 10 is designed to dock with the Tiangong space station for a whole year, making it the longest cargo mission in China's space industry.

Tianzhou 10's predecessor, the Tianzhou 9, undocked from the Tiangong on May 6 after completing a 295-day flight with the space station. It re-entered the atmosphere the next morning under guidance from ground controllers. Most of the spacecraft disintegrated and burned during re-entry, with a small amount of debris falling into designated areas of the ocean, the China Manned Space Agency said.