* Astronomy

China's rapidly developing space programme has taken another giant leap forward with the beginning of the construction of its fourth space launch centre.
The Wenchang Space Satellite Launch Centre on southern Hainan Island, projected to be completed in 2013, is the latest manifestation of Chinas ambition to build its own space station.

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China's first taikonaut, Yang Liwei, on Saturday dismissed worries about the environmental effects of a new space launch centre to be built in the island province of Hainan.
The launches will be non-toxic and do no harm to the local ecology.
Yang, who is visiting the tropical island, said space and environment authorities had researched the impact of the new centre on the surrounding environment before choosing Wenchang as the site for the country's fourth space launch centre.

"The State Environment Protection Administration has concluded that the construction of the new centre and the launches of a new range of carrier rockets will be non-toxic and won't damage the environment in Wenchang and the Hainan island at large. The public needn't worry about environmental issues. What's more, the launch centre could become a landmark building in Hainan and a tourist attraction" - Yang Liwei,  deputy director of the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre.

Construction of the new centre, which would serve the next-generation rocket carriers, is expected to begin at the end of this year, and the centre would be in use within three to five years.
In 1958, China began building its first rocket launch site in northwest China's Jiuquan. The country now has three space launch grounds.

Source Xinhua

China, the third country to put a man in space, is to build a fourth rocket launchpad on its southern tropical resort island of Hainan, state media said on Monday, an idea first suggested in 1999.
The base, in Wenchang, 40 miles south of the provincial capital of Haikou, was expected to include a command centre, a rocket assembly plant, a launch base and a theme park

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According to Luo Baoming, acting governor of Hainan, China is to built a new satellite launching centre, the fourth of its kind in the country, in its southernmost island province of Hainan.

Luo, who is attending this year's session of Hainan Provincial People's Congress, said the feasibility research on the centre started in 2002 and the long-awaited plan will be submitted soon.
Currently, China has three satellite launching centres located, respectively, in Xichang in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jiuquan in northwest China's Gansu Province and Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province.
The site of the new satellite launching centre is confirmed to be Wenchang, about 60 km from provincial capital Haikou.
Covering an area of 20 sq km, the Wenchang Satellite Launching Centre will cover a space launching port, a space theme scientific park, a rocket assembling plant, a rocket launching base, and the command centre.
Hainan was selected as new base of China's satellite launching mainly for its geographical advantages.
The lower the latitude of the launching site is, the larger is the centrifugal force, and the lower is the cost of the launch.

"Hainan is China's closest site to the equator, so much energy could be saved if a satellite base is built in the place" - Long Lehao, an expert in carrier rocket and member of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Wenchang is centred at 11 degrees east longitude and 19 degrees north latitude in northeastern Hainan. Due to the low latitude, the load efficiency of the rocket will be high, according to the expert.
Long estimates the actual load efficiency will increase by 7.4 percent at Wenchang base, compared with the Xichang base centred at 27 degree north latitude. The new base can add 300 kg more rocket load, saving six million U.S. dollars in load expenses (cost on rocket load is about 20,000 U.S. dollars per kg in the world).
China's new-generation rocket is expected to be put into use in 2010 and the Wenchang satellite launching base is likely to serve the launching of the new carrier rockets.
According to Long Lehao, the new satellite launching facility will not cause pollution or harm to surrounding area due to use of environment-friendly technologies.

Source: Xinhua


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