As the world commemorates 50 years since man's first landing on the moon, China's own space pursuits notch another milestone. The nation's Manned Space Engineering Office says the Tiangong-2 Space Laboratory was 'controlled off orbit and re-entered the atmosphere' at 21:06 Beijing time, on July 19. A small amount of debris was reported to have fallen into the intended safe waters in the South Pacific, but experts say it was a largely successful undertaking. Here's CGTN's Ning Hong.

Tiangong-2's controlled re-entry into the atmosphere marks the successful completion of all tasks in the space laboratory phase of China's manned space engineering.

HE YU, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF TIANGONG-2 SPACE LAB CHINA AEROSPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION "Tiangong-2 is in good condition. But the equipment board on the spacelab was manufactured in the time of Tiangong-1, and they are approaching the end of their lifespan. As a responsible country, we need to make sure it can safely re-enter the atmosphere, that's why we made the decision."

The re-entry process is divided into two phases. First, The Tiangong-2 lowered its orbit to an elliptical orbit with the perigee of 200 kilometers on July 18th. And in the second phase, it lowered its orbit to 70 km and entered the atmosphere.

WANG SAIJIN, DEPUTY CHIEF ENGINEER BEIJING AEROSPACE CONTROL CENTER "We have mobilized all of the space-based and ground-based measurement and control resources, and the relay satellites, to ensure Tiangong-2's re-entry process has a comprehensive and reliable measurement and control support."

Since Tiangong-2 Space Lab was launched into orbit on September 15, 2016, it has completed four rendezvous with the Shenzhou-XI manned spacecraft and Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft. It has also successfully supported 2 astronauts in orbit for 30 days.

YANG LIWEI CHINA'S FIRST ASTRONAUT "The medium-term stay for astronauts in Tiangong-2 has laid a solid foundation for our long-term residence of space station missions in the future."

NING HONG BEIJING AEROSPACE CONTROL CENTER  "The success of the mission marks the end of the second phase of China's manned Space Mission and now China's entering into the third phase builds its own space station, the Tiangong."

China's manned Space Station is now under construction, with the name of Tiangong, it is designed to serve for over ten years in space. Ning Hong, CGTN, Beijing.