China on schedule to launch second space station this year after recovery of probe

China on Sunday recovered an experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space programme that envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

Space programme authorities said the spaceship’s landing on the vast Inner Mongolian steppe keeps China on schedule to place its second space station into orbit later this year.

China’s second space lab to go into orbit this year as part of permanent manned space station by 2022

The launch of the spaceship aboard the newly developed Long March 7 rocket on Saturday was hailed as a breakthrough in the use of safer, more environmentally friendly fuels. The launch also marked the first use of the massive new Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on the southern island province of Hainan.

Since launching its first manned mission in 2003, China has sent up an experimental space station, the Tiangong 1, staged a spacewalk and landed its Yutu rover on the moon.

China to launch ‘core module’ for first space station around 2018

Its second space station, the Tiangong 2, is due to be slung into space in September.