China. Launch of the first module (Tianhe) of the Chinese space station Tiangong (Chinese: 天宫; “Palace in the Sky”), which will be positioned in low Earth orbit between 340 and 450 km. Once completed, Tiangong will have a mass of 80 to 100 metric tons, about a fifth of the mass of the International Space Station (ISS) and approximately the size of the decommissioned Russian space station Mir. The station’s construction builds on the experience gained from its precursors, the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space stations. The first module, the Tianhe (“Harmony of the Heavens”) core module, will be launched on April 29, 2021, followed by multiple crewed and uncrewed missions.
