Tiangong-3

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Tiangong-3 was a proposed Chinese space station module in the Tiangong program. It was planned to have a crew of three and weigh about 22,000 kilograms, with a length of 18.1 meters and a diameter of 4.2 meters. The goal was to launch Tiangong-3 around 2015 after Tiangong-2, but its plans were merged with Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 was never ordered, and the project was cancelled. The first module of China’s Tiangong space station was later launched in 2021. In 2008, the China Manned Space Engineering Office described Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 as part of a plan to send several crewed ships to dock with Tiangong-3 in the late 2010s. The first Tiangong module, Tiangong-1, was launched in September 2011 and docked with Shenzhou 8 in November 2011, marking China’s first orbital docking.