(Source: CGTN)

It's a big day for China's manned space program.  The country is to take another crucial step towards building a space station.  The China Manned Space Agency, the CMSA, has announced that the country's first cargo spacecraft, the Tianzhou-1, is scheduled for launch at 19:41 Beijing time later today.

The spacecraft will be holstered to a Chang Zheng, or Long March,-7 Y2 rocket.  It will lift off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province. The Tianzhou-1 is the first cargo ship independently developed by China. It is expected to operate in orbit at 380 kilometers above the earth before docking with the Tiangong-2 space lab. The final launch rehearsal was held on Tuesday.