The success of Artemis II has lit China’s space fire. Now, your space station will be twice as big

All powers have embarked on the new space race and Artemis II It has been the lighthouse that demonstrates the interest that continues to arouse in sending humans outside our borders. Aside from rockets, in low orbit humanity has one of the most exclusive laboratories in the universe: the International Space Station. While the long-standing facility awaits dismantling, China has just sent a message with its Tiangong space station.

Soon, it will be twice as big.

Ambition. When China was left out of the International Space Station project, it got to work on its own facility. The Tiangong It began to take shape in the 2000s and launched its central module into low orbit in 2021. Other modules have been added designed for Chinese astronauts to investigate in an environment that, until now, was forbidden to them.

Since then, it has become a symbol of the ambition of the Chinese space program. Also of the speed at which they are completing goalswith round trip rocket tests and plans for build, together with Russia, a lunar station. Despite everything, he has a problem. It is considerably smaller than the ISS and has a mass of just 100 tons, a pressurized volume of 340 m3 with the capacity to house a crew of three astronauts.

Expanding the Tiangong. The ISS can support a crew of seven astronauts, has triple the pressurized volume capacity and a mass of more than 420 tons. If China wants to get involved in space research, it had to do something, and its response has come in the form of a project to expand the Tiangong. How has informed state television CCTV, the station will go from being a ‘T’-shaped structure with three modules to a cross-shaped one with six modules.

Its mass will be approximately 180 tons and, although it will remain smaller than the ISS, it will have the capacity to equal the astronauts on a permanent mission: six. If the plans are fulfilled, the three current modules will be joined by a fourth that will have multiple docking ports that will give rise to future laboratory units, increasing the potential to six modules. At the moment, there is no date for this expansion, but it is estimated that work will begin around 2027 and will be a Long March 5B the rocket that will transport what is necessary.

Exclusiveness. China spent 2025 launching rockets, culminating in a month of December in which they broke all their launch records in a stress test for your multiple mission points. With plans to expand their space station, they show that they are committed to this new era of research and exploration, being something that arrives just when the International Space Station remains in question.

Tiangong has remained an exclusive laboratory for Chinese researchers, but if it suddenly becomes the only station in low orbit, China is the one that has the access key so that foreign astronauts can carry out their work in those special conditions. On April 22, the Chinese Manned Space Flight Agency already commented that two Pakistan Air Force pilots would be trained as reserve astronauts and one would travel to Tiangong.

He will be the first non-Chinese astronaut to do so, although there are already other astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau who will perform the same process. It is something that responds to China’s intention to promote cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, but without forgetting that the Tiangong is Chinese and, as we say, they have the keys to the doors… and the right of admission.

Scrap. While the Asian giant announces the good news around its station, on the other side of the world a dismantling process of the ISS is still scheduled for 2031. The plan is that NASA use a vehicle exclusive to SpaceX to guide the ISS to a space cemetery somewhere in the Pacific.

In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about whether it is a better idea to dismantle it, turn it into scrap metal or use it as a portbut at this point, the plan continues its course and it is possible that, sooner rather than later, Tiangong will remain the only manned space station in low Earth orbit.

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