Beijing, May 1, 2026 — China has confirmed plans to enlarge its Tiangong low-Earth-orbit space station, a move that could more than double the outpost’s size as the rival International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be retired in 2031.
The ISS, a multinational laboratory operated by partners including NASA, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, will be taken out of service in early 2031. NASA plans to use a dedicated de-orbit vehicle being developed by SpaceX to guide the station into a controlled re-entry over the South Pacific.
China built Tiangong after reportedly being excluded from participation in the ISS amid U.S. concerns about links between China’s space programme and the People’s Liberation Army. Tiangong became operational in 2022 and is currently the only active national space station in orbit, though it remains considerably smaller than the football-field-sized ISS. Since the ISS began operations in 1998, it has hosted more than 3,000 experiments.
Citing state broadcaster CCTV, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that Beijing will add a fourth module to the current T-shaped Tiangong configuration. That multifunctional extension to the Tianhe core would convert the station into a cross-shaped complex and include multiple docking ports to accept two future laboratory units. Together the planned additions would form a six-module station with an estimated total mass of about 180 tonnes. No timeline for the expansion was released.
Since its completion in 2022, Tiangong has supported more than 260 scientific experiments and 26 spacewalks. Over two dozen Chinese astronauts have lived and worked aboard the station. The Chinese programme also expects to carry astronauts from Pakistan, Hong Kong and Macau on missions this year, part of efforts to meet growing scientific demand and broaden international cooperation.
