China's rocket-carrying ships wrap up transporting mission

NANJING -- China's rocket-carrying ships Yuanwang-21 and Yuanwang-22 wrapped up their mission of transporting the Long March-5 Y3 rocket and arrived at a port in eastern China's Jiangsu province Monday.

The two rocket-carrying ships departed from northern China's Tianjin Port on Oct 22 and arrived at Qinglan Port in Wenchang in southern China's Hainan Province after a five-day journey.

The two rocket-carrying ships are China's first ships made exclusively to carry rockets. With a length of 130 meters, a width of 19 meters and a height of 37 meters, the ships have a displacement of 9,000 tonnes. Each ship is equipped with two 120-tonne cranes that can hoist large rockets.

Each ship has traveled around 4,900 nautical miles, and new hoisting methods have been adopted to improve efficiency, according to Shi Zhe, head of the ships.