Full coverage: China Tiangong-2 Space Lab Launch

China moved closer to its goal of building a space station, by putting the Tiangong-2 space lab into orbit on Thursday. The space lab had two orbit maneuvers today from more than 380 kilometers above the Earth. Tiangong-2 moved up another 13 kilometers away from the blue planet and reached the optimum altitude for docking the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft, that's scheduled to launch in October.

During their 30-day mission, the two astronauts will conduct 14 experiments on space science and application of space technology. The results will help prepare for longer space flight and longer space habitation.