![A ROCKET carrying China’s second module for its Tiangong space station lifts off from Wenchang spaceport in southern China.—AFP](https://i.dawn.com/primary/2022/07/62dde09b5140f.jpg)
Beijing’s ambitious space programme took another step forward on Sunday with the launch of the second of the three modules required to construct its new space station,
A In April 2021, Beijing launched the main module of the Tiangong space station, which is Chinese for “heavenly palace.”
The new module, which is over 18 metres long and 22 tonnes in weight, features three sleeping rooms and space for research.
It will dock with the current module in space, a difficult procedure that will call for the utilisation of a robotic arm and multiple high-precision manipulations.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, “China has never docked such huge ships together, which is a difficult process.
Long March 5B rocket launched the unmanned spaceship with the call sign Wentian from the Wenchang launch facility on China’s tropical island of Hainan.
A quarter of an hour later, a spokesman from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) declared the launch to have been a “success
On neighbouring beaches, hundreds of people gathered to capture the launcher ascending through the air in a cloud of white smoke on camera.
The Wentian lab module successfully split from the rocket and achieved its planned orbit after about eight minutes of flight, concluding the launch.