Photo/Illutration China’s new large carrier rocket Long March-5B blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan province on May 5. (Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING--China launched a newly designed spacecraft on Tuesday as part of its program to build an orbiting space station, furthering its aspirations to rival the U.S., Russia and private companies in outer space exploration.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the unmanned spacecraft and its return capsule were flung into space aboard a Long March 5B rocket in its debut flight Tuesday evening from the Wenchang launch center in the southern island province of Hainan.

The capsule is reportedly an improvement on the Shenzhou capsule based on the former Soviet Union’s Soyuz model and can carry six astronauts rather than just three.

China earlier launched an experimental space station that later crashed back through the atmosphere and plans to build a larger facility with multiple modules to rival the scale of the International Space Station.

China’s burgeoning space program achieved a milestone last year by landing a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon and has plans to launch a lander and rover on Mars.

The program has developed rapidly, especially since its first crewed mission in 2003, and has sought cooperation with space agencies in Europe and elsewhere.

The United States, however, has banned most space cooperation with China out of national security concerns, keeping China from participating in the International Space Station and prompting it to gradually develop its own equipment. The new Long March 5B rocket has been specially designated to propel modules of the future space station into orbit.