China to launch its first cargo spacecraft 'Tianzhou-1' on Thursday!

Beijing: China will launch its first cargo spacecraft 'Tianzhou-1' on Thursday from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Hainan province.

As reported in Xinhua news agency, the Centre on Tuesday conducted the final rehearsal covering all systems involved in the launch such as the rocket, spacecraft, launching site and testing, control and communication systems.

Before the rehearsal, staff finished testing the rocket's hermeticity and its power and electric systems. The rehearsal showed that all the systems were working well and the technical conditions were good.

Tianzhou-1is the first cargo ship independently developed by China and the spacecraft is expected to dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab and conduct in-orbit refueling.

The cargo spacecraft will also carry out space experiments, including one on non-Newtonian gravitation, before falling back to the earth.

(With IANS inputs)