Tiangong Space Station

Tiangong — meaning "Heavenly Palace" — is China's third-generation space station and the only fully operational outpost besides the ISS. Operated by the China Manned Space Agency, the T-shaped complex was assembled across three launches in 2021 and 2022 and has been continuously crewed since June 2022. Three taikonauts typically live aboard for six-month rotations, conducting microgravity science, Earth observation, and technology demonstrations. China has stated that Tiangong is open to international collaboration and is actively expanding its experiment programme.

Tiangong's T-shape is built around three pressurised modules. Tianhe, the core module, hosts crew quarters, life support, propulsion, and the main robotic arm. Wentian and Mengtian, the two laboratory modules, dock to lateral ports and carry science racks, an airlock, and an external exposed facility for materials and astrobiology experiments. Visiting Shenzhou crew vehicles and Tianzhou cargo freighters dock at axial ports. Large flexible solar arrays generate power; CMSA has announced plans for additional expansion modules later in the decade.

The Tianhe core launched on April 29, 2021, followed by Shenzhou-12 in June with the first three taikonauts. Wentian arrived in July 2022 and Mengtian in October 2022, completing the T configuration. Continuous crew rotations began with Shenzhou-14 in June 2022 and have run unbroken since. Crews have performed numerous spacewalks using the airlock on Wentian, hosted students in live "Tiangong Classroom" lessons broadcast across China, and operated experiments ranging from quantum communications to combustion physics in microgravity.