Learn Chinese - Hainan site of 4th space launch pad

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Hainan site of 4th space launch pad

Updated: 2007-09-24 07:02

China has unveiled its plan to construct a new space launch center on
Hainan Island after years of discussions.

To be built in Wenchang, a city about 60 km south of the provincial
capital of Haikou, the 20 sq km complex is expected to include a command
center, a space launching port, a rocket assembling plant, a rocket
launching base and a theme park.

According to the plan, the center will be primarily used for launching
synchronous satellites, heavy satellites, large space stations, and deep
space probe satellites. The State Council and the Central Military
Commission have approved the plan.

As China's fourth space center, Wenchang's low-latitude and geographic
proximity to the equator would help increase the capacity of rocket
carriers and extend the life span of satellites, the Xinhua News Agency
said.

Wenchang also has the unique advantage of sea access.

The three other bases are all located inland.

Proposals for construction of the Hainan site were first reported in
1999, over four decades after China began building its first rocket
launch site in Jiuquan in northwestern Gansu Province in 1958. The other
two facilities are in Taiyuan, northern Shanxi, and Xichang, southwestern
Sichuan, built in 1967 and 1970, respectively.

Together, the bases have launched more 100 satellites and six manned
spacecraft into space.

After completion of the Wenchang project, which earlier reports indicated
to be around 2010, Jiuquan will continue to launch re-entry satellites
and manned spacecraft. Taiyuan, too, will still be responsible for
satellites that orbit the sun, while the Xichang operations will be used
only for emergency missions.

The Chinese government works on the peaceful use of outer space to
promote development of human civilization, and social development to
benefit the whole of mankind, a spokesman for China's space program was
quoted by Xinhua as saying.

In 2003, China launched its first manned space mission, making it the
third country to send a human into orbit after Russia and the United
States.

The country is also planning to launch its first lunar probe "Chang'e I"
by the end of this year.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily 09/24/2007 page3)

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