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China to build satellite launch site in Wenchang

China is planning to build a new satellite launch site -- the country's fourth -- to boost its burgeoning space program, state media reported yesterday.

The facility will be located in Wenchang on the southern island province of Hainan, about 60km away from the provincial capital of Haikou, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The site is closer to the equator than other parts of China, which makes it well suited for launches because lower latitudes have stronger centrifugal forces, reducing the amount of energy required to launch rockets, Xinhua said.

The plan has been approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, and the Central Military Commission, it said, without giving any details on construction or a completion date.

Telephones at the State Council and Wenchang government offices rang unanswered yesterday.

China takes great pride in its space program and sees it as a way to validate its claims to be one of the world's leading nations in the field of science.

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

China began building its first rocket launch site in Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert in 1958. The other two facilities are in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, and in Xichang, Sichuan Province.

According to the People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiuquan will continue to launch re-entry satellites and manned spacecraft after the Hainan site is completed.

Taiyuan will be responsible for satellites that orbit the sun, while the Xichang operations will be used for urgent or emergency missions, the paper said.
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