Astronauts start work inside space lab
The first lab component of the Tiangong station, Wentian was launched on Sunday afternoon by a Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.
The vehicle consists of three major parts-a crew working compartment, an airlock cabin and an unpressurized service module.
Weighing 23 metric tons, the space lab is 17.9 meters tall, roughly equivalent to a six-story residential building, and has a diameter of 4.2 meters. It is the largest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever built and also the world's heaviest self-propelled spaceship in service, according to designers at the China Academy of Space Technology.
Before Wentian's docking, Tiangong consisted of the Tianhe module, the Tianzhou 4 cargo ship and the Shenzhou XIV spacecraft.
Mission planners said the Tiangong station's second lab, Mengtian, will be lifted by a Long March 5B from Wenchang in October.