Chinese tracking vessel sails to Pacific Ocean for monitoring missions

NANJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- China's third-generation space tracking ship Yuanwang-5 on Tuesday set sail for the Pacific Ocean from a port in Jiangsu Province for multiple monitoring missions.

Before the voyage, it underwent more than 50 days of maintenance to improve the reliability and safety of the ship's power system and facilities, said Zhang Hongwang, a first mate of the vessel.

The ship spent 256 days at sea last year.

Yuanwang-5 has by far sailed over 570,000 nautical miles and completed more than 80 tasks at sea, including tracking the Shenzhou spacecraft, the Chang'e lunar probes and BeiDou satellites.