Chinese officials have renewed their commitment to constructing their space station by the end of this year and claim they are preparing more than 40 launches for 2022, which would put them approximately on par with the United States.

A recent announcement by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), also known as CASC, said that the station’s additional two modules, as well as two crewed Shenzhou missions and two cargo vehicles, will all be launched by the end of the year.

Tianhe is three-person crew will soon be joined by two new science modules named Mengtian and Wentian.

With an eye on becoming a major player in space exploration, China’s normally cautious program is ramping up its launch frequency.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the United States expects to have around the same number of launches this year. As a result of the disruption in supply chains for critical commodities like computer chips, liquid oxygen once used as rocket fuel was transferred to hospitals in order to preserve lives.

The launch of the Space Launch System, a 332-foot-tall rocket destined for future lunar missions, is one of the most anticipated.

The United States objected to China’s military-run space program being allowed access to the International Space Station.

Since its Tiangong space station program was launched, China has built and then abandoned two experimental stations before launching the current iteration.

As of Shenzhou-13 Tianhe is six-month mission, China is just the third nation after Russia and the United States to have sent a human into space.

On Thursday, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was successfully undocked and re-attached to the space station for the first time using the station’s robotic service arm, which the crew used to conduct two spacewalks.

Upon completion, the station will weigh 66 tons, or about a fifth as much as the International Space Station (ISS), which launched its first module in 1998 and currently weighs over 450 tons. The trio will be the station’s second permanent crew.

Chinese unmanned missions have also had their share of successes. Last year, China’s Yutu 2 lunar exploration rover returned images of what some referred to as a “mystery house,” but it was most likely just another rock.

The rover is the first to land on the moon’s far side, which has been largely unexplored. This year, China launched a rover on Mars to look for signs of life and returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

Controversy has also erupted around it. As recently as October, China’s Foreign Ministry said it was simply testing the feasibility of using a new spacecraft for another mission.

According to reports, China is also working on a top-secret spacecraft.