HAIKOU /China/, June 11. /TASS/. South China's Hainan Province has completed construction of a spaceport for international commercial launches in the city of Wenchang on the island's eastern coast. That's according to the China Daily newspaper.
The newspaper wrote that last Thursday the construction of the second service tower was completed, which will soon be used for the first launch of the Chang Zheng-12 two-stage oxygen-kerosene rocket. The first structure designed for Chang Zheng-8 was completed at the end of December last year. Thus, the construction of the new spaceport has been completed.
Upon commissioning, China's only platform designed exclusively for commercial missions will become the country's fifth ground-based launch complex. The project was realized with the participation of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and China Satellite Network Group. The facilities were built by China Aerospace Construction Group.
In addition to the commercial site, Wenchang has a state-owned spaceport (built in 2009 and put into operation in 2016). It is one of China's four space havens so far, the only place in the country where technical conditions enable the launch of the CZ-7A ("Chang Zheng-7-a"), the longest (60.7 m) nationally developed rocket. Hainan is the only city in China capable of launching other new-generation carriers - the commercial CZ-8, as well as the CZ-5. The latter has the maximum mass (859-879 tons) among all national counterparts.
Seven Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, the main unit of China's Tianhe orbital station, its laboratory modules Wentian and Mengtian, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, and the Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 unmanned lunar exploration vehicles were launched from the provincial spaceport. In addition, thanks to Wenchang, China has put many satellites into orbit.