HAIKOU /China/, June 25. /TASS/. Wenchang International Space City in the northeast of Hainan Island is developing dynamically. According to Liu Chong, head of the management of this innovation zone, 205 specialized companies have already registered on the territory of the cluster.
"Amid the dynamic growth we are witnessing, the Wenchang International Space City continues to make tireless efforts," the official was quoted by Hainan Daily newspaper as saying. "There are now 1,633 enterprises in the zone, inincluding 205, or 12.6 percent, in the aerospace sector.
Liu Chong said that over the past three years, companies engaged in the design and production of launch vehicles, satellites, data processing, and several research and development projects have settled on the site. According to the department there is a successful formation of reliable industry chains in the space city. Favorable geographical location and developed transport infrastructure contribute to this.
The Wenchang International Aerospace City was established in October 2019, about three years after the launch of the nearby spaceport. Geographically, this 42-square-kilometer innovation zone consists of two sites about 15 kilometers apart. One of them is adjacent to the launch complex, the other is a science town, where an advanced scientific and industrial cluster is being formed by high-tech companies.
Statistics show that in the first quarter the total income of enterprises located on the territory of the town exceeded 4 billion yuan ($557 million), having increased 3.4 times in annual terms. Tax receipts for the three months totaled 214 million yuan ($29.8 million) and fixed assets investment - 1.34 billion yuan ($186.6 million), these figures grew 2.3-fold and 1.8-fold respectively.
Hainan spaceport
The Wenchang Space Launch Site is one of China's four space ports, and is the only place in the country where technical conditions allow for the launch of the CZ-7A - the longest (60.7 m) rocket of national design. Other new-generation launchers that only Hainan is capable of launching in the country are the commercial CZ-8, as well as the CZ-5. The latter has the maximum mass (859-879 tonnes) of all its national counterparts.
Six Tianzhou space trucks, the main unit of the Chinese Tianhe orbital station, its laboratory modules Wentian and Mengtian, as well as the Mars exploration probe Tianwen-1 and the unmanned lunar exploration vehicle Chang'e 5 were launched from the province's spaceport. In addition, Wenchang allowed China to put many satellites into orbit.