China is set to launch a second experimental space station, as it looks to have a manned station by 2022. State media said the Tiangong 2 is scheduled to launch just after 22:00 local time today from the Gobi desert. Next month two astronauts will go to the station to conduct research.
Beijing has made space exploration a national priority and is the third country, after the Soviet Union and the US, to put astronauts into space. The mission follows the launch of the Tiangong 1 prototype in 2011, a smaller but also operational model.