China begins building a space station in orbit

China sent the core module of its space station into space on April 29, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the station by the end of next year.

The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan at 11:23 am (Beijing Time).

Tianhe will act as the management and control hub of the space station Tiangong, meaning Heavenly Palace, with a node that could dock with up to three spacecrafts at a time for short stays, or two for long stays, said Bai Linhou, deputy chief designer of the space station at the China Academy of Space Technology, under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Tianhe has a total length of 16.6 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters and a takeoff mass of 22.5 tons. It is the largest spacecraft developed by China.

The space station will be a T shape with its core module at the center and a lab capsule on each side. Each module will be over 20 tons. When the station docks with both manned and cargo spacecrafts, its weight could reach nearly 100 tons.