Chinese space stations

Chinese space station in low Earth orbit

Tiangong-1 () was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a crewed laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during its two years of active operational life.

Tiangong-2 () was a Chinese space laboratory and part of the Project 921-2 space station program. Tiangong-2 was launched on 15 September 2016. It was deorbited as planned on 19 July 2019.

Tiangong-3 () was a proposed Chinese space station that was part of the Tiangong program. The China National Space Agency (CNSA) initially planned to launch Tiangong-3 around 2015, following the launch of the Tiangong-2 test laboratory, which was originally planned for 2013. However, the goals for the Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 laboratories were merged, and the latter was not ordered. Eventually, the first module of the third station of the Tiangong program, Tiangong space station, was launched in 2021.