Tiangong (Chinese Space Station)

About Tiangong (Chinese Space Station)

China's space station programme began with two single-module test vehicles: Tiangong-1, launched in September 2011, which hosted two brief crewed visits before being deorbited in 2018, and Tiangong-2, launched in September 2016, which tested longer-duration life support and in-orbit refuelling before its controlled deorbit in July 2019. Both were stepping stones — technology demonstrators for the permanent modular station that followed.

The permanent Tiangong station began with the launch of Tianhe, the core module, on a Long March 5B rocket from Wenchang on 29 April 2021. Tianhe provides life support, living quarters for three crew, and the station's primary propulsion. The first crew, Shenzhou-12, arrived in June 2021 for a 90-day mission. Two laboratory modules followed: Wentian docked in July 2022 and Mengtian in October 2022, completing the station's T-shaped configuration. Each lab module is approximately 18 metres long, comparable in size to an ISS laboratory module.

Tiangong orbits at approximately 340–450 km altitude at 41.5° inclination — slightly lower than the ISS's 51.6° — and hosts three-person crews on six-month rotations, with brief overlaps of up to six during crew handovers. China operates the station independently; it is not part of the ISS programme. Research aboard covers space medicine, materials science, fluid physics, and Earth observation. Cargo is delivered by uncrewed Tianzhou spacecraft. CNSA has indicated the station may be expanded with additional modules in the future, and has offered berths to international partners.

RocketMapper currently tracks 1 Tiangong (Chinese Space Station) satellite in real time in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Track them live on the 3D globe →