BEIJING – A Chinese spaceship is working normally in orbit, with its solar panels in position and a communication link established, the government said Thursday.
The craft was launched aboard a new heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March 5B, from Hainan island Tuesday. It's on a experimental mission without any crew, but the capsule is reportedly an improvement on the Shenzhou capsule based on the former Soviet Union’s Soyuz model and can carry six astronauts instead of three.
The spacecraft is flying stably in a “highly elliptical orbit, with the power supply, measurements and control links normal,” the official China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.