Tiangong-3

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.

== Development == In 2008, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) published a brief description of Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3, indicating that several crewed spaceships would be launched in the late 2010s to dock with Tiangong-3. The first Tiangong module, Tiangong-1, was launched in September 2011 and successfully docked with the uncrewed Shenzhou 8 spacecraft in November 2011, marking China's first orbital docking.