China’s New Home Port for Space Exploration | Decoding Wenchang Space Launch Site

1. Basic information

Address: Longlou Town, Wenchang City, Hainan Province

Coordinates: 19°19′0.18″N, 109°48′0.15″E

Construction time: September 14, 2009

Completion time: mid-October 2014

Activation time: June 2016

2. Launch process

Rocket: The rocket undergoes final assembly at the Tianjin Rocket Base and is then shipped at the Tianjin Port. It passes through the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and other sea areas. It takes 5-7 days and sails 1,800 nautical miles to arrive at Qinglan Wharf in Wenchang City, Hainan Province. It is then transported by road to the rocket horizontal transfer preparation plant inside the launch site. After the rocket was tested in the comprehensive test hall, it entered the vertical assembly test plant for erection, docking, and comprehensive testing.

Spacecraft: transported by air to Haikou Meilan Airport, and then transported by road to the spacecraft assembly and testing plant inside the Wenchang Space Launch Site. After the spacecraft completes the final assembly test, it is transported in a vertical state to the filling and fairing assembly plant for propellant filling and fairing assembly. It is then transported vertically as a spacecraft/fairing combination to the rocket vertical assembly test plant for docking and installation with the rocket.

Rocket/spacecraft complex: Conduct a general inspection of the complex and carry out relevant transition preparations, then transport the complex vertically and integrally to the launch station, perform fueling, and ignite the launch.

3. Launch station

(1) Completed workstations

There are 2 workstations that have been built, namely:

Station 101: Launching Long March 5 and Long March 5B carrier rockets;

Station 201: Launch Long March 7, Long March 7A, and Long March 8 carrier rockets.

(2) Not yet completed

Station 301: Launching the Long March 10 carrier rocket.

4. Positioning and advantages

(1) Positioning

It undertakes space launch missions such as geosynchronous orbit satellites, large-mass polar orbit satellites, large-tonnage space stations and deep space exploration spacecraft.

(2) Advantages

Low latitude: Low latitude and close to the equator. The rotation of the earth can be used to allow the rocket to carry more payloads.

The shooting range is wide: from east to south.

Safety of the landing area: The landing areas are all in the ocean, and falling debris is less likely to cause accidents, which is conducive to the development of reusable rockets.

Can develop high-thrust rockets: Rockets can be transported by sea, and the diameter of the rocket body is not limited by railway bridge culverts, which is conducive to the development of high-thrust and large-diameter rockets.

5. Previous launch missions

serial number

emission

time

carry

Rocket

main load

track

type

Remark

1

June 25, 2016

Long March 7

Expedition No.1A

LEO

success

2

November 03, 2016

Long March 5

Practice No. 17

GTO

success

3

April 20, 2017

Long March 7

Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft

LEO

success

4

July 2, 2017

Long March 5

Practice No. 18

SSTO

fail

5

December 27, 2019

Long March 5

Practice No. 20

SSTO

success

6

March 16, 2020

Long March No. 7A

New Technology Experiment No. 6

GTO

fail

7

May 05, 2020

Long March 5B

New generation manned spacecraft test ship

LEO

success

8

July 23, 2020

Long March 5

Tianwen-1 Mars Probe

TMI

success

9

November 24, 2020

Long March 5

Chang’e 5 lunar probe

TLI

success

10

December 22, 2020

Long March 8

New Technology Experiment No. 7

SSO

success

11

March 12, 2021

Long March No. 7A

Experiment 9 satellite

GTO

success

12

April 29, 2021

Long March 5B

Tianhe core cabin

LEO/CSS

success

13

May 29, 2021

Long March 7

Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

14

September 20, 2021

Long March 7

Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

15

December 23, 2021

Long March No. 7A

Test No. 12 Star 01/02

GTO

success

16

February 27, 2022

Long March 8

Hainan-1 Group 01 and other 22 stars

SSO

success

17

May 10, 2022

Long March 7

Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

18

July 24, 2022

Long March 5B

Wentian experimental cabin

LEO/CSS

success

19

September 13, 2022

Long March No. 7A

ChinaStar 1E

GTO

success

20

October 31, 2022

Long March 5B

Mengtian experimental cabin

LEO/CSS

success

21

November 12, 2022

Long March 7

Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

22

January 9, 2023

Long March No. 7A

Practice No. 23

GTO

success

23

May 10, 2023

Long March 7

Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

24

November 03, 2023

Long March No. 7A

Communications Technology Experimental Satellite No. 10

GTO

success

25

December 15, 2023

Long March 5

Remote Sensing Satellite 41

GTO

success

26

January 17, 2024

Long March 7

Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft

LEO/CSS

success

27

February 23, 2024

Long March 5

Communication Technology Experiment Satellite 11

GTO

success

28

March 20, 2024

Long March 8

Queqiao No. 2, Tiandu No. 1, Tiandu No. 2

TLI

success

29

May 03, 2024

Long March 5

Chang’e-6 lunar probe

TLI

success

30

June 29, 2024

Long March No. 7A

ChinaStar 3A

GTO

success

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