40°57′29″N 100°17′28″E / 40.95806°N 100.29111°E / 40.95806; 100.29111

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
Map of the chinese Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
LocationEjin, Alxa, Inner Mongolia
Coordinates40°57′29″N 100°17′28″E / 40.95806°N 100.29111°E / 40.95806; 100.29111
OperatorCASC
Total launches132
Launch pad(s)Two
Launch history
StatusActive
Site 9401 (SLS-2) launch history
StatusActive
Launches110
First launch3 November 2003
Long March 2D / FSW-3 1
Last launch30 December 2023
Long March 2C / Hulianwang Jishu Shiyan 4
Associated
rockets		Long March 2C
Long March 2D
Long March 4B
Long March 4C
Site 901 (SLS-1) launch history
StatusActive
Launches22
First launch19 November 1999
Long March 2F / Shenzhou 1
Last launch14 December 2023
Long March 2F / Reusable Experimental Spacecraft
Associated
rockets		Long March 2F
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
Simplified Chinese酒泉卫星发射中心
Traditional Chinese酒泉衛星發射中心

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC; Chinese: 酒泉卫星发射中心; pinyin: Jiǔquán Wèixīng Fāshè Zhōngxīn also known as Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center; Launch Complex B2; formally Northwest Comprehensive Missile Testing Facility (西北综合导弹试验基地); Base 20; 63600 Unit)[1] is a Chinese space vehicle launch facility (spaceport) located in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia. It is part of the Dongfeng Aerospace City (Base 10). Although the facility is geographically located within Ejin Banner of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League, it is named after the nearest city, Jiuquan in Gansu Province. The launch center straddles both sides of the Ruo Shui river.[2]

History

It was founded in 1958, the first of China's four spaceports. As with all Chinese launch facilities, it is remote and generally closed to foreigners.

The Satellite Launch Center is a part of Dongfeng Space City (东风航天城), also known as Base 10 (十号基地) or Dongfeng base (东风基地). The Dongfeng site also includes People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) test flight facilities, a space museum and a so-called martyr's cemetery (东风烈士陵园).[3]

JSLC is usually used to launch vehicles into lower and medium orbits with large orbital inclination angles, as well as testing medium to long-range missiles. Its facilities are state of the art and provide support to every phase of a satellite launch campaign. The site includes the Technical Center, the Launch Complex, the Launch Control Center, the Mission Command and Control Center and various other logistical support systems.

The center covers 2800 km2 and may have housing for as many as 20,000 people. The facilities and launch support equipment were likely modelled on Soviet counterparts and the Soviet Union likely provided technical support to Jiuquan.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center was expanded during the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's rugged interior to prepare for potential invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States.[4]: 218 

The launch center has been the focus of many of China's ventures into space, including their first satellite Dong Fang Hong I in 1970,[5]: 218  and their first crewed space mission Shenzhou 5 on 15 October 2003. As of 2021, all Chinese crewed space flights, meaning all flights in the Shenzhou program including crewed flights to the Tiangong space station, have launched from Jiuquan.

In August 2016, China launched the first quantum communication satellite, the "Quantum Experiments at Space Scale", from the center.[6]

In August 2018, Chinese private rocket manufacturing startups i-Space and OneSpace launched sub-orbital rockets from the center.[7] On July 25, 2019, the first Chinese private orbital launch took place from Jiuquan as I-Space launched their Hyperbola-1 rocket.

Launch pads

The launch site comprises two launch complexes, each containing several launch locations. All the launch statistics reported below are up to date as of December 2023.

North Launch Complex

The North Launch Complex consists in two different launch areas, both currently inactive.

South Launch Complex

The South Launch complex is currently active and consists in a main launch area used by CASC to handle the launches of several Long March vehicles and a variety of concrete pads for small rocket launches.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Jiuquan Space Launch Center - Facilities - NTI". www.nti.org. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "This Military Base is Where China Blasts Humans into Space". Bloomberg.com.
  3. ↑ "航天科技游圣地——东风航天城 (The Jerusalem of the space tech journey-Dongfeng space city)" (in Chinese). 新华网内蒙古频道 (Xinhua network inner-Mongol channel). 5 December 2007. Archived from the original on 24 July 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2008.
  4. ↑ Meyskens, Covell F. (2020). Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108784788. ISBN 978-1-108-78478-8. OCLC 1145096137. S2CID 218936313.
  5. ↑ Meyskens, Covell F. (2020). Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108784788. ISBN 978-1-108-78478-8. OCLC 1145096137. S2CID 218936313.
  6. ↑ "China Launches Pioneering 'Hack-Proof' Quantum-Communications Satellite". space.com. Space.com. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  7. ↑ Jones, Andrew (7 September 2018). "Chinese startups OneSpace, iSpace succeed with suborbital launches". Retrieved 10 September 2018.
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