HAIKOU /China/, April 14. /TASS/. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the northeast coast of the province during his visit to Hainan and stressed the particularly important role of this launch site in the development of Chinese astronautics, China Central Television reported on Thursday.
"The Wenchang Space Launch Center is our national launch site designed for next-generation rocket launches. It is an important national platform for deep space exploration, it holds a special place and plays an important role in China's aerospace system," Xi Jinping stressed.
According to the Chinese leader, Hainan's spaceport is of great strategic importance because the development of China's manned space flight program is linked to it. He also noted the need for its constant modernization.
"We need to keep on persistently creating a world-class spaceport," Xi Jinping added. The head of state recalled that this year this launch site has been given the important tasks of launching the Tianzhou-4 and Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft as well as the Wentian and Mengtian modules for the Chinese orbital station.
"Everything must be carefully prepared, organized and executed to ensure the absolute success of the launches," Xi Jinping ordered.
The Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Center is one of China's four space launch pads and is the only place in the country where technical conditions allow the launch of the CZ-7A (Chang Zheng 7-a) - the longest (60.7 meters) rocket of national design. Other new-generation Chinese rockets, which only Hainan is capable of launching, are the commercial CZ-8, as well as the CZ-5 and CZ-5B (Chang Zheng-5 and Chang Zheng-5-b). They are the most massive (870 and 837.5 tons, respectively) of all counterparts developed in the PRC. In addition, the spaceport is a popular attraction, which in 2021 attracted more than 8 million tourists who spent 6 billion yuan (more than $942 million) during their visit.