China to construct a new space launch center in the southernmost Hainan Province in the near future, according to military sources.
The State Council and the Central Military Commission approved the new space launch center at the end of 2008, which will feature high carriage efficiency, high launch capacity, and low launch costs, said the sources. The new space launch center will be in Wenchang City, and it will be divided into three parts, with functions to transfer, test, and launch rocket-carriers, and provide logistic, meteorological, telecommunications and technological services. The Wenchang Space Launch Center is designed for launching new-generation rocket-carriers and space vehicles like geo-synchronous (GEO) satellites, polar-orbiting satellites, space stations and deep-space exploration satellites. The government has taken the issues of ecological protection and tourism into consideration, according to the sources, who declined to give details on the date of the start of building the new project and its budget. China's space industry began in 1956, when the government published its first plan to develop jet and rocket technology. Four years later, the country launched its first rocket.
(Source: China View Sci + Tech site)
According to an article appearing in CHINAdaily in March of last year, the following information was made available regarding the launch facility. To be completed within five years of the original article's date, the planned 20-sq-km center is located near Wenchang, which boasts the island's longest coastline of up to 207 km. The new base will include a command center, a rocket launch site, rocket assembly plant and 7-billion-yuan ($985 million) space theme park. A spectator's platform that will enable 300,000 viewers to watch nearby satellite launches is also being planned for. Previously, former Wenchange Party Chief Xie Mingzhong had announced the launch center would be completed in 2012 and put into operation the following year. However, Party disciplinary officials later suspected him of bribery and corruption, and he was forwarded to judicial departments in January. China has three existing satellite launch centers in Gansu, Shanxi, and Sichuan.
