The latest Chinese Space station, the Tiangong 2, is slated to be launched later in 2016 and will be visited by Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou spacecraft. But, according to Spaceflight Insider, the Chinese are already looking ahead to their permanent low Earth orbit space facility, the Tiangong 3, slated to begin construction in 2018.

First, the core module called Tianhe 1 or “Galaxy” will be launched on board a Long March 5 rocket and placed in low Earth orbit. The Tianhe will weigh 24 tons and will be 59 feet in length and 14 feet in diameter. The core module will have five docking ports, a robotic arm and modular racks for scientific experiments.

Later, two science modules, the Wengtian and the Mengtian, will launch between 2020 and 2022 and will be attached to the Tianhe 1. Each of the auxiliary modules will be 47 feet long and 14 feet in diameter. Wengtian will have science racks and its own robot arm. The Mengtian will have a docking port that can accommodate spacecraft and additional modules as needed.

In a way, the Tiangong 3 more resembles the Soviet-era Mir space station than it does the International Space Station. But, unlike either facility, the Chinese space station will be able to accommodate the planned Xuntian space telescope. The Xuntian will have a 6.5 foot mirror and will have a field of view 300 times larger than NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

The Xuntian will share the same orbit as the Tiangong 3 and will periodically dock with the Mengtian port for servicing and repairs.

The Tiangong 3 will be visited periodically by Chinese astronauts in Shenzhou spacecraft and will be resupplied by Tianzhou cargo vehicles. The Tiangong 3 will give China the ability to conduct long-term operations in space.

After the decommissioning of the ISS, China may become the only country with such capabilities unless a commercial follow-on space station can be built in low Earth orbit.

Besides a space station, China is looking ahead to landing people on the lunar surface sometime after 2030.