Monday, October 31, thirteen hours after its takeoff aboard a Long March-5B rocket, the Mengtian module (“dream of the skies” in Mandarin) docked with the Chinese space station (CSS, according to its English acronym ) of which it constitutes the third and last element. This 18-meter-long and 23-ton “can” is the twin of the Wentian laboratory-module which was launched in July.
Composed of three elements, which can be attached to cargo ships or crew transport capsules, the CSS remains relatively modest in size compared to the International Space Station (ISS) which has sixteen modules. The Chinese orbital station is designed to be permanently inhabited by a crew of three people and, for the time being, two men and a woman, who arrived in June, are on board.