Spacecraft launch centre will be built on Hainan
The State Council has approved the construction of a spacecraft launch centre on the southern island province of Hainan , according to Xinhua. From 2013, holidaymakers will be able to watch giant rockets rising from the semi-tropical island on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
General Armament Department deputy chief of staff Xia Changfa was quoted as saying the work on the spaceport, China's fourth, would begin very soon.
The launch centre would significantly boost the nation's spacecraft launch capacity, enabling it to become one of the world's greatest - not only the biggest - spacefaring countries, General Xia said.
'It will be completely open to the public,' he said.
Tourists will be allowed to view an entire launch - from spacecraft checks to control-room countdown - from designated centres or platforms.
Space agencies are all keen to build their spaceports as close to the equator as possible, to save on the fuel needed to propel payloads into orbit.
The United States, for instance, built the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, and France launches satellites from French Guiana in northern South America.
Hainan was proposed more than three decades ago, according to Wang Xudong , a retired satellite expert and a senior adviser to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
But some conservative decision makers in the People's Liberation Army who, until recently, had controlled the planning and execution of most, if not all, of the mainland's space programmes, argued that unlike the three other locations, which are protected by mountains or desert, Hainan was vulnerable to military attack.
Professor Wang said that in recent years the political leaders felt confident that the international environment would be stable and a regional war was unlikely.
'The choice of Hainan as a major spaceport is the most convincing act taken by the Chinese government to show we want no war but peace,' Professor Wang said. 'Chinese do business everywhere, and space will not be an exception.'
China launched two Earth observation satellites yesterday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province.
