The Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-2 will fall on Earth in 2019

The announcement comes just six months after the country's first space laboratory, dubbed Tiangong-1, made international news when it fell into orbit in an uncontrolled descent.

"Tiangong-2 has fulfilled its mission over the past two years, and all shipments are now in good condition," said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of China's space engineering bureau, according to national media reports.

"It will be in orbit until July 2019, then will be controlled in disorbitant."

It lasted barely half the time that its predecessor went into orbit. Tiangong-1 was launched in September 2011 and lasted at least five years before "shutting down" in March 2016, according to officials at the Chinese Space Agency. It was not revealed why he had suddenly stopped working.

The Tiangong program (Tiangong means "Heavenly Palace" in English) is the first step towards the ultimate space goal of China: launch a permanent space station around 2022.

But a space station is only part of the Chinese government's ambitions in terms of space program.

In August, Beijing unveiled the mobile it planned to send to explore the "dark side" of the moon in 2018, as the launch of the first Mars probe into the country is scheduled for 2020.

"Our overall goal is that around 2030, China will be among the world's leading space powers," Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the Chinese Space Agency, told reporters in 2016.