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BEIJING - China launched the second of three modules to its permanent space station on Sunday, in one of the final missions required to complete the orbiting outpost by the end of the year.

The 23-tonne Wentian ("Quest for the Heavens") laboratory module launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan at 2:22 p.m. (0622 GMT) on the back of China"s most powerful rocket, the Long March 5B.

When the Wentian isolated from the rocket about 10 minutes after launch, space agency staff cheered and applauded from a control room, as seen on the live feed.

CCTV revealed shortly after that the launch was a "complete success."

China began building the space station in April 2021, with the launch of the Tianhe unit, the main living quarters, in the first of 11 crewed and uncrewed missions.

Along with the other lab module that has not yet been launched, the Mengtian, the 17.9 metre (59 foot) long Wentian lab module will be where astronauts can conduct scientific research ("Dreaming of the Heavens").

When the station is finished, an airlock cabin on Wentian will serve as the primary exit-entry point for extravehicular activities.

It will also act as temporary housing for astronauts during crew changes on the space station, even though it was only intended to house three people permanently.

Mengtian, like Wentian, will launch in October and dock with Tianhe to form a T-shaped structure.

President Xi Jinping"s ten years as head of the Communist Party of China will come to an end with the completion of the structure, which makes up nearly a fifth of the International Space Station (ISS) in terms of mass and is a source of pride for the average Chinese person.

The leaders of the Shenzhou-14 expedition, Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe, are all currently aboard the space station. When the crew of Shenzhou-15 arrives in December, they are expected to return to Earth.