NANJING — China's third-generation space tracking ship Yuanwang-5 set sail for the Pacific Ocean on March 22 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.