Space program celebrates 30 years

Wentian also serves as a backup control station to the Tianhe core module in case of emergencies or malfunctions. It has all the same flight-control devices as those inside the core module to operate the entire Tiangong station.

The second lab module, Mengtian, is the world's largest single-body spacecraft now in active service. It contains 13 scientific cabinets used for microgravity studies and experiments in fluid physics, materials science, combustion science and fundamental physics. It also carries 37 extravehicular payload adapters.

A major technical feature of Mengtian is that it can move scientific apparatus out of the Tiangong station without requiring any manual labor by the astronauts to conduct extravehicular experiments and bring them back again.

The lab module is capable of launching miniature spacecraft, such as CubeSats.