Overview: China's major space programs in 2020

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Editor's Note: The year 2019 witnessed China making steady progress in its aerospace mission. On Jan 3, the Chang'e 4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, creating another milestone in the lunar exploration history of humankind. In November, a key experiment was carried out to verify the design and capability of the robotic Mars probe, marking a big step for China's exploration to the Mars.

But what will happen in the next year? We've sorted out some major space programs that are expected to be launched in 2020. Take a tour with us and see which ones excite you the most.

1. Tiangong space station

China will start putting together its first manned space station around 2020. In the first step, a Long March 5B carrier rocket will put the station's core module into orbit that year. Next, other components and astronauts will be ferried to the core module to assemble the station.

The multimodule station, named Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, will be mainly composed of three components - a core module attached to two space labs - having a combined weight of more than 90 metric tons, according to the China Academy of Space Technology.

The space station is expected to be built and become fully operational around 2022 and is set to operate for about 15 years.

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