China plans to expand its low-earth orbiting space station, potentially more than doubling in size, as the rival International Space Station (ISS) is set to be phased out by 2031.Currently, China’s Tiangong and the ISS, a collaborative project involving NASA along with the space agencies of Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, are in orbit.NASA plans to retire ISS, the largest human-made structure in space and serve as a continuously occupied laboratory orbiting Earth, which will make the Chinese space station one of its kind orbiting Earth.China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that its space programme is manned by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).It is currently the only country to have a space station which became operational in 2022. The station is relatively small compared to the football court-sized ISS, in which several international astronauts have carried out over 3,000 experiments since its operationalisation in 1998.NASA plans to retire the ISS in early 2031, using a dedicated de-orbit vehicle, being developed by SpaceX, to guide it into a controlled re-entry over the South Pacific, according to reports.When the ISS, which is a collaborative project of several countries, phases out, China’s space station may become the only one of its kind in orbit.China has confirmed plans to expand its space station, potentially more than doubling in size to meet the growing scientific demand and expand international cooperation, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.China’s T-shaped Tiangong space station will first be fitted with a fourth module a multifunctional extension to the Tianhe core – turning it into a cross-shaped configuration, the Post reported, quoting China’s state broadcaster CCTV.The new module will have multiple docking ports, including for a pair of future laboratory units, paving the way for a six-module structure with a total mass of about 180 tonnes.No timeline for the expansion has been released, it said.The T-shaped Tiangong was completed in 2022, and since then, astronauts have used it as a base for more than 260 scientific experiments and 26 spacewalks.More than two dozen Chinese astronauts have lived and worked aboard the structure, and astronauts from Pakistan, Hong Kong and Macau are expected to join missions this year.