THE NEW SPACE RACE: First Chinese Cargo Spacecraft Launch Planned For April.

Citing sources in the China Manned Space Agency, a Xinhua report said the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft arrived Monday at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan Province in south China. The first cargo vessel built independently by China, Tianzhou-1 consists of a capsule each for cargo and propellant, and can carry a payload of up to six tons.

Itself weighing about 13 tons at liftoff, it is designed to stay in space for up to three months at a stretch. It is also capable of docking with Tiangong-2, a space laboratory China launched mid-September 2015, which it can refuel as well.

It will be launched aboard a Long March 7-Y2 carrier rocket, which will arrive at the launch center some time in March, the space agency sources told Xinhua.

We could use the competition.