A state media video report offers rare footage of China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo and resupply spacecraft, which will launch in April to test refuelling technology needed for the country’s plan for a large space station.

The video shows what is China’s first such spacecraft undergoing development and testing at the AIT facility in Tianjin, North China, as well as 3D renderings of Tianzhou-1 docking with the Tiangong-2 space lab.

The main objective of the Tianzhou-1 mission is to test and verify on-orbit transfer of liquid propellant in microgravity to Tiangong-2, which late last year hosted two astronauts for China’s longest human spaceflight mission so far.

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