China became the third nation to send a person into space in 2003, following the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has sent rovers to the moon and Mars and brought lunar samples back to Earth.
The current Shenzhou mission by the spacewalking crew onboard Tianhe is China’s longest mission to date.
Working largely independent of the rest of the world, China has pushed ahead with its Tiangong space station program. They built and then abandoned two experimental stations before the latest lab was developed.
