(Yicai Global) March 5 -- China has mapped out a plan to launch the experimental core module of its space station around 2020, Zhou Jianping, a member of the advisory Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and chief designer of the China Manned Space Program, said on March 4, chinanews.com reported.

As Tianzhou-1, the country's first cargo spacecraft flew off into space and successfully docked with the Tiangong-2 space lab in 2017, the space laboratory program, the 'second step' of China's manned space program, was successfully completed, and China thus ushered in its 'space station era'

China plans to launch an experimental core module around 2020 to verify the key technologies for the construction of the space station and greatly enhance the technical level of China's space technology through research and development, said Zhou Jianping. China will launch two laboratories in turn and complete their docking with the core module, which will signal the space station's transition from the construction phase to the operating stage.