CONSTRUCTION on the Shanghai Planetarium reached a milestone yesterday as temporary braces were removed on a 2,000-ton cantilever structure, the museum said.

The 38,000-square-meter planetarium, a new branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, is in the Lingang area of the Pudong New Area. It consists of three sections, or “celestial bodies” — the Oculus, the Inverted Dome, and the Sphere. The cantilever structure is part of the Sphere.

Steelwork on the Oculus and the Inverted Dome were finished earlier and the cantilever is the last piece of the museum’s steel structure. The cantilever structure was temporarily supported by 12 metal frames while another eight had already been removed. The structure can now stand on its own, without external support.