China has released a small test satellite into orbit from its recently completed Tiangong space station.
The small test satellite was released from a deployer on the Tianzhou 5 cargo ship, which is currently docked at Tiangong. Tianzhou 5 launched on Nov. 12 with the primary mission of delivering supplies to the space station to support the three Shenzhou 15 mission astronauts but also carried a number of cubesats.
Tianzhou 5 is now connected to the Tiangong space station, where it is storing propellants, materials for scientific experiments and astronauts’ supplies.
The space agency said that to make the best use of the Tianzhou-series cargo ships’ abundant carrying capacity, scientists have used them to transport several payloads of scientific equipment and mini satellites to orbit. It said future Tianzhou missions will also offer educational opportunities to researchers at home and abroad.