China: New Space Station

The Tiangong Space Station (Chinese: 天宫 'Heavenly Palace') or Chinese large modular space station is a space station placed in low Earth orbit between 340-450 km above the surface. The Tiangong Space Station will be roughly one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station and about the size of the decommissioned Russian Mir space station. The Tiangong is expected to have a mass between 80 and 100 t (180,000 and 220,000 lb). Operations will be controlled from the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center in China. The core module, the Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens"), launched on 29 April 2021.

The construction of the station will manifest the 3rd phase of the Tiangong program. It builds on the experience gained from its precursors, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2. Chinese leaders hope that research conducted on the station will improve researchers' ability to conduct science experiments in space, beyond the duration offered by China's existing space laboratories.

The Chinese large modular space station is designed to be used for 10 years which could be extended to 15 years and will accommodate 3 astronauts.

With the core module deployed and stocked, China will launch 3 taikonauts to live on the CSS. The launch is expected to take place in June 2021. This crewed mission, named Shenzhou-12, will be China's 7th, and the first since the Shenzhou-11 mission in 2016.

China is seeking to enhance its capacity for scientific and technological innovation by building the large modular space station.