China has announced that it successfully launched the final module needed to complete its first space station.

State-run China Central Television reported that the module, Mengtian, was blasted into space aboard the carrier rocket Long March-5B from a launch site in Hainan Province, southern China, after 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mengtian, the second laboratory module for the station, will be connected with the core module Tianhe, and the first module, Wentian, which was launched in July.

Mengtian will conduct scientific research under microgravity as well as zero gravity.

China plans to complete assembling the space station before the end of the year, by sending astronauts tasked with the assignment.

Monday's development comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping began an unprecedented third term as the party's General Secretary.

Xi has adopted a plan to build China into a "great modern socialist country" that will surpass the United States. He has accelerated the country's space development by sending unmanned probes to the moon and Mars.

This is the fourth time China has launched a Long March-5B rocket. Concerns over the possibility of falling debris are on the rise. When one rocket re-entered the atmosphere after a launch in 2020, its debris reportedly fell onto the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire and damaged buildings.