China's New Wenchang Space Launch Site Ready for Action

Construction of China’s new launch site on Hainan Island is complete according to a report in the Chinese media.  The Wenchang Satellite Launch Center is the country’s fourth space launch site and the first that is not inland.  It also is the furthest south, improving China’s ability to launch satellites into geostationary orbit.

China currently launches satellites from Jiuquan in the Gobi desert (human space missions, lunar spacecraft, mid-high inclination orbit satellites), Xichang in Sichuan province (primarily geostationary satellites), and Taiyuan, just south of Beijing (polar-orbiting satellites). 

Wenchang is on the northeast coast of Hainan Island and only 19 degrees north of the equator (currently Xichang is the furthest south, at 28 degrees north).  China plans to use it for its new Long March 5 rocket, still under development, that will be able to launch about 25 metric tons to low Earth orbit, in the same class as the U.S. Delta IV.

China Daily says Wenchang and Long March 5 will be used to launch spacecraft not only into Earth orbit, but to lunar and interplanetary destinations.  The first launch from Wenchang is expected next year.

Among the science missions planned for Long March 5 from Wenchang is a lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-5, planned for 2017.   An engineering test for that mission reportedly is scheduled for launch this week.   (Chang’e-3 was launched last year and deposited the Yutu rover on the Moon.  Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 were lunar orbiters.  Chang’e is China’s mythological goddess of the Moon.)

Note:  The original version of this article referred to the engineering test for Chang’e-5 that may be launched this week as Chang’e-4 and provided other information.  However, the name is reported differently in various sources (Bob Christy’s zarya.info site calls it “Chang’e Lunar Sample Container Test Flight”).  The name and other details of that mission are incidental to this article, which is about the Wenchang launch site, so we have simply omitted it in this update.