China on Thursday launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station, marking further progress in the ambitious Chinese space program. The Tianzhou 1 blasted off at 7:41 p.m. atop a latest-generation Long March 7 rocket from China's newest spacecraft launch site, Wenchang, on the island province of Hainan. It is programmed to conduct scientific experiments after reaching the now-crewless Tiangong 2, China's second space station. History of successChina was excluded from the 381-tonne International Space Station mainly due to U.S. legislation barring such cooperation and concerns over the Chinese space program's strong military connections. Since China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, it has staged a spacewalk and landed its Jade Rabbit rover on the moon.

Source: CBC News April 20, 2017 19:41 UTC