Space program celebrates 30 years

Before its arrival, the Tianzhou 5 will depart the station to leave the docking hatch open for Tianzhou 6 and then burn itself up during its descent toward Earth.

Pang Zhihao, an expert on space exploration, said that compared with its predecessors, the Tianzhou 6 will carry more equipment and materials for scientific experiments and technological demonstrations.

"The Tiangong space station began formal operations at the start of this year so astronauts are spending more time on science and technology tasks. Now a large proportion of their time will be used to install and fine-tune scientific and technological apparatuses, and carry out experiments and tests," he said.

"As the bioregenerative life-support system inside Tiangong has been fully tested and proved functional, Tianzhou ships will no longer need to carry many living necessities and the space and weight saved can be used to transport more mission payloads."