VIENNA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- China announced Monday that all member states of the United Nations are welcome to cooperate with China to jointly utilize its future China Space Station (CSS).

"CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world," said Shi Zhongjun, China's ambassador to UN and other international organizations in Vienna.

"All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the cooperation on an equal footing," he said.

Interested public and private organizations, including institutes, academies, universities and private enterprises with scientific orientations, can identify their appropriate models of cooperation on board CSS, may it be the growth of a space plant, or even the accommodation of an astronaut, said the ambassador.

CSS, expected to be launched by 2019, and complete and brought into operation by 2022, will be the world's first space station that is developed by a developing country and open for cooperation with all UN member states.

Consisting of one core module and two experiment modules, CSS will have the capacity to accommodate up to three astronauts at the same time and maximum six during rotation.

Operating in low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface, CSS will be used in a wide range of research fields, including space medicine, life science, biotechnology, microgravity science, Earth science and space technology.