Orbital outpost

In a low-Earth orbit about 400 km above the ground, China's Tiangong space station has been traveling around the mother planet for about three years and seven months.

The origin of China's aspirations to operate its own space station can be traced back to the mid-1980s when a group of distinguished space scientists started calling for government support to open manned space programs so that China would not lag behind in the global arena of space exploration.

In 1986, the government launched what later became known as Project 863. The national high-tech project covered seven major fields, ranging from biology to new energy. It set two major goals for China's space sector: one was to build large carrier rockets and reusable aerospace vehicles; the other was to construct a space station.

In September 1992, a massive plan made by scientists for crewed spaceflights and a permanent space station was approved by the top leadership, officially beginning the nation's manned space program.

Since then, the Chinese space community has made specific plans and taken a systematic approach, advancing patiently from simple, multi-day missions to sophisticated, monthlong flights involving several spacecraft.