NANJING - Two rocket-carrying ships on Tuesday departed to pick up and transport the Long March-5 rocket, China's largest carrier rocket scheduled to be launched later this year.

Yuanwang-21 and Yuanwang-22 set out for north China's Tianjin Port to pick up containers holding the Long March-5 and will arrive at Qinglan Port in Wenchang in South China's Hainan Province after a seven-day journey.

Long March-5 will be launched from the Wenchang satellite launch center.

The Yuanwang ships are China's first ships made exclusively to carry rockets.

In early May this year, Yuanwang-21 transported Long March-7 to Wenchang. As Long March-5 is a heavy-lift rocket, it needs two carrying ships.