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China's Cargo Spacecraft Tianzhou-6 Ready for Launch | China Space Station
China's Cargo Spacecraft Tianzhou-6 Ready for Launch | China Space Station
China's cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-6, is ready for launch, May 10, 2023, according to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in China's southern island province of Hainan. The Tianzhou-6 cargo ship contains a 22.5-cubic-meter cargo compartment, which has 50 lockers to place daily necessities for the taikonauts and equipment needed for in-orbit experiments.
What is prominent on the packing list this time is that about 70 kilograms of fresh fruit are to be delivered, roughly twice the weight of that carried by Tianzhou-5.
"We plan to send a large refrigerator to the space station to ensure that the supply for the taikonauts contains not only fruits but also some frozen food," Wang Ran, lead designer of cargo spacecraft systems at China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told China Media Group (CMG). "For example, in the future if they wish to eat grilled steak, we will freeze the beef on the ground and deliver it to the space station."
"We will bolster our ability gradually to ensure a better life for the taikonauts," said Wang.
Besides food, the cargo ship will also deliver other daily necessities such as clothes, holiday supplies and sanitation supplies, as well as experimental equipment for the taikonauts.
Jia Dongyong, chief mechanical designer for the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft system at CAST, told CMG that the Tianzhou-6 cargo ship is the most capable space cargo ship currently in service.
With a maximum launch mass of 14 tonnes, the Tianzhou-6 spacecraft now has a payload ratio of 0.53, said Jia.
The payload ratio refers to the proportion of cargo weight to the total weight of the whole spacecraft. The higher
The Tianzhou-6 cargo ship contains a 22.5-cubic-meter cargo compartment.
The Tianzhou-6 cargo craft will be the first of a new batch of China's cargo ships—from Tianzhou-6 to Tianzhou-11—to boost their loading capacity from the previous 6.9 tonnes to 7.4 tonnes.
The cargo spacecraft, 10.6 meters in length, consists of two parts—a smaller lower part as its propellant module, and a larger upper part the cargo module.
The Tianzhou-6 cargo craft is the first spacecraft visiting the Shenzhou-15 crew in orbit. It will be sent by a Long March-7 carrier rocket, the country's new-generation medium liquid-propellant carrier rocket with high reliability and safety.
With a total length of 53.1 meters and a diameter of 3.35 meters, the rocket is bundled with four boosters, and has a takeoff weight of nearly 600 tonnes and a payload capacity of about 14 tonnes to low-Earth orbit.
The Tianzhou-6 mission is the 7th launch for the Long March-7 rocket.
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