It is the first time that a timetable has been made public for building the space station, the official China Daily said.

The planned space station is a “small scale 20-ton space workshop,” the daily quoted Long Lehao, a leading designer of Long March 3A rocket, which recently shot China’s first lunar probe, Chang’e 1, into space, as saying.

But, a spokesman of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said the country had not set any specific timetable for developing a space station.

China would focus on manned spaceflight and lunar exploration in the near future, CNSA spokesman Li Guoping said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“No plans issued by the government so far has said we are going to develop a space station,” Li said.

China, the third country after the US and Russia to put its astronauts into space using its own rocket, has made technology breakthroughs in developing new family of rocket launchers, China Daily quoted Long as saying.