The Long March 7 carrier rocket that will be used to send the Tianzhou 5 cargo spaceship into orbit to dock with the Tiangong space station arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province on Tuesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a news release the rocket was carried by ships from Tianjin, a northern coastal municipality and home to the rocket's manufacturing facility. It will be assembled and then undergo ground tests with the Tianzhou 5 at the launch complex.

Propelled by pollution-free fuel, each Long March 7 has a take-off weight of 597 metric tons and is capable of sending an up to 13.5-ton payload to low-Earth orbit, or 5.5 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit.

The Tianzhou 5 robotic spacecraft is scheduled to be sent to transport fuel and supplies to the Tiangong station before the end of this year. Its launch has been arranged after the launch of the Mengtian lab module late this month and before the Shenzhou XV manned mission around year's end, program planners have said.

At present, the Mengtian lab, the Tianzhou 5 and the Shenzhou XV spacecraft as well as their carrier rockets have arrived at their launch centers, and scientists and engineers are making final preparations for the coming flights which will complete the in-orbit assembly of the Tiangong space station.

Serving as a national space-based platform for science and technology, Tiangong is now the only operating space station beside the International Space Station, a multinational venture that has rejected Chinese participation due to objections by the United States.

Tiangong is expected to operate in orbit for around 15 years and will be open to foreign astronauts in the near future, according to the China Manned Space Agency.