China on Sunday launched the second of three modules needed to complete its new space station, state media reported, the latest step in Beijing's ambitious space programme. The uncrewed craft, named Wentian, was propelled by a Long March 5B rocket at 2:22 pm (0622 GMT) from the Wenchang launch centre on China's tropical island of Hainan. A quarter of an hour later, an official from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) confirmed the "success" of the launch. Hundreds of people gathered on nearby beaches to take photos of the launcher rising through the air in a plume of white smoke. After around eight minutes of flight, "the Wentian lab module successfully separated from the rocket and entered its intended orbit, making the launch a complete success," the CMSA said.

Chinese astronauts edged into space on Friday to add the finishing touches to a robotic arm on the Tiangong space station. The foray, the second spacewalk in two months and relayed on state television, is part of China's heavily promoted space programme which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. In June, three crew arrived at the station, where they are set to remain in space for a total of three months in China's longest crewed mission to date. On Friday, astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming successfully exited the Tianhe core module to install foot stops and a workbench on the station's robotic arm, said the China Manned Space Agency in a statement. The foray is part of China's heavily promoted space programme which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon Photo: CNS / - Video footage showed the astronauts working outside the spacecraft while tethered to it with a long rope.

Liu Boming took in the dizzy view. Around him lay the inky vastness of space. Over the next seven hours Liu and his colleague Tang Hongbo carried out China's second spacewalk, helped along by a giant robotic arm. Mission accomplished, the two taikonauts – China's astronauts – clambered back into their home for the next three months: Beijing's new space station. The core module of the station, named Tiangong, meaning "heavenly palace", was launched in April.

On 20 July 1969, before an estimated television audience of 650 million, a lunar module named Eagle touched down on the moon's Sea of Tranquility. The tension of the landing and the images of astronauts in futuristic spacesuits striding over the moon's barren surface, Earth reflected in their oversized visors, would prove wildly influential to artists, writers and film-makers. Also watching were the soon-to-be proponents of another technological field populated by brilliant young geeks: computer games. It is perhaps no coincidence that during the early 1960s, when Nasa was working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Instrumentation Lab to develop the guidance and control systems for Apollo spacecraft, elsewhere on campus a programmer named Steve Russell was working with a small team to create one of the first true video game experiences. Inspired by the space race, and using the same DEC PDP-1 model of mainframe computer that generated spacecraft telemetry data for Nasa's Mariner programme, Russell wrote Spacewar!, a simple combat game in which two players controlled starships with limited fuel, duelling around the gravitational well of a nearby star.

China's programme to launch a mission to Mars in 2020 is'well underway' according to its top planner. As the country moves forward with its ambitious space programme, a probe that will will carry 13 types of payload is being developed. The Communist regime hopes to have both six rovers on the surface of the red planet, as well as seven vehicles in orbit, collecting vital data. This could one day lead to both a'robotic and human settlement' on the red planet, according to the project's leader. China's programme to launch a mission to Mars in 2020 is'well underway' according to its top planner.As the country moves forward with its ambitious space programme, a probe that will will carry 13 types of payload, including six rovers, are being developed (artist's impression) The Long March-5 carrier rocket will blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the tropical island province of Hainan in July or August 2020.

China has launched its first cargo spacecraft, making further progress in its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022. The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft lifted off early evening on Thursday on a Long March-7 Y2 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan. Minutes later, as the spacecraft cleared the atmosphere, the mission was declared a success by administrators at ground control on the outskirts of the capital, Beijing. The spacecraft can carry six tonnes of goods, two tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months, according to state media. It is expected to dock in two days with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2", where two astronauts spent a month last October in China's longest-ever manned space mission. The cargo spacecraft mission will provide an "important technological basis" for the construction of China's space station, according to state media.

China has revealed the first pictures of the rover it is going to send to mars in 2020. The newly-unveiled little robot will explore the planet for three months, according to state media, and it is the latest part of China's ambitious and expensive space programme. China became the third country to put a man in space, after the US and Russia, in 2003. Since then it has been aiming at other achievements in its space programme. From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater.