An unmanned Chinese cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with an orbiting space station module in the sixth of 11 missions needed to finish building China's first space station by the end of the year.
A Long March-7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-4 spacecraft blasted off at 1.56am, Beijing time (0356 AEST), on Tuesday from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern Hainan province.
Tianzhou-4 docked with Tianhe, the core module of the space station, at 8.54am, China Manned Space Agency said.
The cargo spacecraft transported propellants, application experiments samples, some payloads and supplies for three astronauts.
Three astronauts will travel to Tianhe in June on the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and live and work aboard the module for six months.
China aims to complete the construction of its first space station this year, being a key rival of the world's only station, NASA's International Space Station.
Australian Associated Press
