China launched the final module to the Tiangong space station on Monday, 31 October 2022, the latest step in Beijing's ambitious space programme.
The module, named Mengtian, or "dreaming of heaven", was launched on a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang launch center, South China's Hainan Province.
Amateur photographers and space enthusiasts watched the launch -- which took place at 3:27 pm (0727 GMT) -- from a nearby beach.
Mengtian is the third and final major component of the T-shaped Tiangong space station and carries a number of state-of-the-art science equipment into orbit, including the world's first space-based cold atomic clock system, state news agency Xinhua reported.
"If successful, the cold atomic clock will establish the most precise time and frequency system in space, which should not lose a second in hundreds of millions of years," Zhang Wei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua.
China has invested heavily in its space program to catch up with major space powers such as the United States and Russia.
Beijing plans to launch the Xuntian space telescope next year. In previous missions, Beijing has landed a rover on Mars and sent a probe to the Moon.
