Launch of Tiangong-2

Tiangong-2 was a Chinese space laboratory, launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which served as a testbed for the larger space station that followed. In October 2016 two astronauts, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, arrived on Shenzhou 11 and stayed aboard for thirty days, the longest crewed mission by China at that time. In 2017 the cargo ship Tianzhou 1 docked with it and carried out the first in-orbit refuelling by China. The laboratory carried experiments in space science, medicine and technology. Tiangong-2 was deliberately brought down to burn up over the South Pacific in 2019, and its work led to the Tiangong space station.

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