The People's Republic of China is a emerging spacepower as it starts to build its fourth national spaceport to launch satellites, human-rated spacecraft and space stations in the coming years. The new facility is the Hainan Space Satellite Launch Center on the northeast coast of the tropical island province of Hainan. It is expected to be completed by 2013 at a cost of almost 5 billion yuan. More photos from China Defense Mashup.
The Hainan site is being built to accommodate the Long March CZ-5 carrier rocket, which will be able to carry larger payloads and is slated to become the workhorse of China's manned space and space station program. Covering an area of 20 sq km, the Wenchang Satellite Launching Center will cover a space launching port, a space theme scientific park, a rocket assembling plant, a rocket launching base, and the command center.
The theme park, dubbed as the first-ever one in Asia with the theme of areospace, will exhibit rockets and model rockets and provide opportunities for visitors to experience zero gravity. Chinese tourist sources indicate that upon completion this spaceport and others will be open to American foreign nationals - perhaps the 'ice breaker' is dawning in Sino-American space diplomatic relations.
Upon becoming operational, the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center will join the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and the Xichang Satellite Launch Center for Chinese civil, commercial, and military launch campaigns. The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert is not open to Americans [with no immediate prospect for change] but the spaceport has served as the base for the three Chinese human space launches since 2003.
The Hainan site is being built to accommodate the Long March CZ-5 carrier rocket, which will be able to carry larger payloads and is slated to become the workhorse of China's manned space and space station program. Covering an area of 20 sq km, the Wenchang Satellite Launching Center will cover a space launching port, a space theme scientific park, a rocket assembling plant, a rocket launching base, and the command center.
The theme park, dubbed as the first-ever one in Asia with the theme of areospace, will exhibit rockets and model rockets and provide opportunities for visitors to experience zero gravity. Chinese tourist sources indicate that upon completion this spaceport and others will be open to American foreign nationals - perhaps the 'ice breaker' is dawning in Sino-American space diplomatic relations.
Upon becoming operational, the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center will join the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and the Xichang Satellite Launch Center for Chinese civil, commercial, and military launch campaigns. The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert is not open to Americans [with no immediate prospect for change] but the spaceport has served as the base for the three Chinese human space launches since 2003.
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