The launching of the "core module" for China's space station has been set around 2018 as part of a plan to establish a permanent manned space station in service by 2022, a senior official told the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, April 21.
President Xi Jinping has called for China to establish itself as a space power, giving priority toward advancing its space program, but Beijing has also tested anti-satellite missiles, apart from its civilian ambitions, Reuters reported.
The U.S. Defense Department has stressed the increasing capabilities of China's space program, saying that its activities were aimed at preventing adversaries from using space-based asset in a crisis, despite China's insistence that its space program is for peaceful purposes.
Wang Zhongyang, spokesman for the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., told Xinhua that the "core module" for the space station would be called the "Tianhe-1," a Chinese word for galaxy or Milky Way.
"Two space labs will be launched later and dock with the core module, Tianhe-1," Wang said. "The construction of the space station is expected to finish in 2022."
Wang did not give any details of what the "core module" would consist.
"If the International Space Station, which has extended its service, is retired by 2024, China's new space station will be the only operational one in outer space," Wang added.
In 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit in a manned space mission and docked with an experimental space laboratory, the Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace).
According to Xinhua, Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou-11 spacecraft will be launched this year and will carry two astronauts and dock with Tiangong-2.
Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo ship, will attempt to dock with Tiangong-2 next year, the report said.
Wang added that a space telescope, similar to the Hubble Space Telescope, is also being planned to be launched, which will "be on a separate space unit and share orbit alongside the space station."
China was also working on reusable rocket technologies and has already built a prototype model, according to a separate report by Xinhua.
The report said that although China is already developing its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, it still has to catch up with established space powers such as the United States and Russia.