China releases first images of its completed Tiangong space station

The orbiting structure was completed last year

China's completed Tiangong space station. Photo: China Manned Space Agency

China has released images of its completed space station for the first time.

The Chinese Manned Space Agency this week posted images on its website of the Tiangong space station, which orbits the planet at about 425km.

Astronauts have been living and working on the structure since 2021. Its construction was completed last year, but images have only been made public this week.

“Before the Shenzhou 16 crew returned to the ground, the astronauts held high-definition cameras as they flew around the spacecraft to photograph the space station assembly,” the Chinese space agency said.

“This was the first time in orbit that a full-scale image of the space station assembly, with the Earth as the background, was obtained, and it was the first to reflect the entire structure of the space station.”

Tiangong, which translates to “heavenly palace”, is about one fifth of the size of the International Space Station and can accommodate three astronauts, or six people during a short handover.

The Tiangong space station was pictured by Chinese astronauts before their return to Earth. Photo: CMSA

The station now includes the Tianhe core module and two laboratory modules including the Wentian and Mentian.

Five crewed flights have undertaken missions to the station under the Shenzhou programme, China's manned spaced programme.

China has previously said that it is open to hosting astronauts from other countries on the station.

The country has ambitions to become a leading space power, with a sector that includes human flights to its new space station, planetary, lunar and deep-space exploration, a satellite navigation system and the continued development of its space transport system.

China landed a spacecraft mission on the Moon in 2019 – the Chang'e-4 mission – the world's first to touchdown on the lunar far side.

The country's Zhurong Rover landed on Mars in 2021, where it captured several images of the planet's surface and science data. But it has not woken up from hibernation since 2022.

It also unveiled plans for a station on the Moon's surface, called the International Lunar Research Station.