A robot tasked with making "lunar soil bricks" will also be launched during China's Chang'e 8 mission around 2028

Beijing's significant advances in space in recent years have alarmed Washington and other Western nations

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, from the European Space Agency, took to Twitter to quote a Chinese proverb from the fourth century, CGTN said

Astronomers from both nations are exploring the idea of creating instruments together, SCMP said

China’s space agency said most of the remnants of the spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean, 1,000km southwest of Acapulco in Mexico

CASC lauded the “complete success” of the mission boosting China’s “space transportation technology from one-time use to repeated use”

US space agency NASA said Beijing had not shared the "specific trajectory information" needed to know where possible debris might fall

The rocket's entire main-core stage has reached low orbit and is expected to tumble back toward Earth once atmospheric friction drags it downward, possibly on Sunday

The Long March-5B Y3 rocket will carry the laboratory module, which will include robotic arm, large solar panels and an airlock to Tiangong