China's first space station to be built around 2020: chief designer

Mar 11, 2016 Chief designer of China’s Manned Space Program, Zhou Jianping, recently revealed that China’s first orbiting space station will be finished around 2020.

He went on to add that China’s second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 will be sent into space in the third quarter this year and the country will launch the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft with two astronauts on board to dock with Tiangong-2 in the fourth quarter.

“After the Tiangong-2 mission is completed, China will start the construction of its space station, which will be completed around 2020. It will be a large, complicated and advanced space facility for astronauts to live and work in space,”