China's Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft burned up as it reentered Earth's atmosphere as planned on Friday evening, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said in a news release that under ground control guidance, the robotic craft flew back into the atmosphere at 8:37 pm. After that, most of the spaceship burned up, and a small amount of debris fell into secure sea areas.
The Tianzhou 6 robotic cargo ship was launched in early May from Wenchang Space Launch Center in the country's southernmost island province of Hainan.
As the ninth spaceship to visit the Tiangong space station, Tianzhou 6 carried about 260 packages with a combined weight of nearly 5.8 metric tons, including living necessities enough for a three-member crew for 280 days.
It departed from the Chinese space station on Jan 12 and then entered into the solo-flight mode. During the solo flight, it deployed an experimental satellite, built by Dalian University of Technology, into a preset orbit.
Tianzhou 6's successor, the Tianzhou 7 cargo vessel was launched on Wednesday night in Hainan province, becoming the first spacecraft to visit China's Tiangong space station this year.
Tianzhou 7 is carrying more than 260 packages with a combined weight of nearly 5.6 metric tons, including several items of scientific apparatus, each of which weighs more than 100 kilograms.
