China has finished enclosing land for its fourth satellite launch centre near Wenchang City on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
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The construction site of China's fourth satellite launch centre on Hainan Island. [chinanews.cn]
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The Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre covers an area of 20 square kilometres, it will include a command centre, in addition to a rocket-launching site, rocket assembly plant, and a space-science theme park.
The most important part, the rocket-launching site, will be located in Longlou Town, a mountainous place located 40 minutes by car from Wenchang. The launch tower is about 800 meters away from the seaside.
China's sole space-science theme park, at a cost of seven billion yuan, will be built at nearby Dongjiao Town.
The enclosing of land will evacuate 6,100 villagers in the region by the end of 2008.
Currently, China has three satellite launch centres, at Xichang in southwestern Sichuan Province, Jiuquan in northwestern Gansu Province, and Taiyuan in northern Shanxi Province.
Hainan was selected as China's fourth launch centre mainly for its geographical advantage, being China's closest site to the equator it affords energy saving opportunities.
The new launch centre will mainly shoulder the launching of geosynchronous (GEO) satellites, polar orbiting satellites, large space stations and deep space exploration satellites.
The new base will not cause pollution or harm the surrounding area, due to the use of environmentally-friendly technologies.
