China’s first unmanned space cargo ship Tianzhou 1, which was launched Thursday, successfully docked with the country’s orbiting Tiangong 2 space station on Saturday, China national central television reported.

The cargo spacecraft was built to carry fuel, materials and other supplies for the construction of the Chinese space station due for completion around 2020.

The cargo ship is said to be the equivalent of the Dragon spacecraft of the private U.S. company Space X and the Japanese replenishment ship Konotori.

The Chinese are working to perfect material transportation technology to enable long-term stays on the space station.

KEYWORDS China, space, astronomy