Today I am going to start a series of posts about Chinese launch facilities. The first facility I am going to cover is the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center(JSLC). The JSLC is located about a thousand miles west of Beijing in the Gobi desert. It is over three thousand feet above sea level. The very dry location which has extended daylight hours. The area has an annual average temperature of forty seven degree Fahrenheit and average relative humidity between thirty five and fifty five percent. The terrain is very flat with an unobstructed view in all directions. Missions can be launched three hundred days a year. It is an excellent area for satellite and space craft launches.
The JSLC is part of the Dongfeng Aerospace City, also referred to as Base 10. Both the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists have dedicated whole cities to a particular industry. Considering the deep involvement of the Soviet Union(SU) with early Chinese space exploration, it is probably that the SU provided technical assistance in the design and construction of the spaceport. Although the JSLC is actually located in Inner Mongolia, it is named for the nearest major Chinese city. All three of the Chinese spaceports in remote regions of China and they are closed to the Chinese public and to foreigners.
The JSLC was created in 1958 as the first Chinese launch facility or spaceport. Initially, it was used by the military for testing missiles but it now launches civilian and foreign space missions. It has hosted more launches than either of the other two Chinese spaceports. The JSLC is dedicated to launching satellites and spacecraft into low and medium orbits with large orbital inclination angles. It is also used to test medium and long range missiles. Included in the site are:
· The Technical Center,
· The Launch Complex,
· The Launch Control Center,
· The Mission Command and Control Center
· Other support systems.
The JSLC covers more than a thousand square miles and provides housing for around twenty thousand people. The JSLC has been the location of many important Chinese launches including the first satellite in 1970, the first launch of another country's satellite in 1992 (Swedish communication satellite) and the first manned mission in 2003. There have been a series of manned launches and a space station launch from JSLC up to the present.
The JSLC has four launch areas designated
· Launch Area One with one launch pad
· Launch Area Two with three launch pads
· Launch Area four with two launch pads
· Launch Area Four with two launch pads
Launch Area Four is currently the only operational Launch area. The powerful Long March 2C, 2D, 2F and 4C rockets are launched from this pair of launch pads. Hundreds of missions have been launched from the JSLC.
Launch of a Long March 2D rocket from Jiuquan:
