Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

40°57′29″N 100°17′28″E / 40.95806°N 100.29111°E / 40.95806; 100.29111

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC;

The center covers 2800 km² and may have housing for as many as 20,000 people. The facilities and launch support equipment were likely modelled on Soviet counterparts and the Soviet Union likely provided technical support to Jiuquan.^{[citation needed]}

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center was expanded during the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's rugged interior to prepare for potential invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States.^[5]: 218

The launch center has been the focus of many of China's ventures into space, including their first

In August 2016, China launched the first quantum communication satellite, the "Quantum Experiments at Space Scale", from the center.^[7]

In August 2018, Chinese private rocket manufacturing startups i-Space and OneSpace launched sub-orbital rockets from the center.^[8] On July 25, 2019, the first Chinese private orbital launch took place from Jiuquan as I-Space launched their Hyperbola-1 rocket.^{[citation needed]}

Launch pads

The launch site comprises two launch complexes, each containing several launch locations. All the launch statistics reported below are up to date as of December 2023.

North Launch Complex

The North Launch Complex consists in two different launch areas, both currently inactive.

• Launch Area 2: used for both orbital launches and ballistic missile tests.
  • LA-2A: used for launches of the
    DF-3 and DF-5 ballistic missiles and hosted the first Chinese orbital launches, carried out through the CZ-1 launch vehicle. It hasn't hosted orbital launch attempts since 1971. (41°18′32″N 100°18′59″E / 41.3088°N 100.3165°E / 41.3088; 100.3165 (LA-2A)
    )
  • LA-2B: used for orbital launches of the
    FB-1 launch vehicles. It has been last used in 1996. (41°18′22″N 100°18′48″E / 41.3061°N 100.3132°E / 41.3061; 100.3132 (LA-2B)
    )

• Launch Area 3: situated approximately 2.7 km south of Launch Area 2, used for launches of the
  DF-2 and R-2
  ballistic missiles.
  • North pad (located at approximately 41°16′59″N 100°18′17″E / 41.2831°N 100.3047°E / 41.2831; 100.3047 (LA-3 north pad))
  • South pad (located at approximately 41°16′49″N 100°18′16″E / 41.2804°N 100.3045°E / 41.2804; 100.3045 (LA-3 south pad) )

South Launch Complex

The South Launch complex is currently active and consists in a main launch area used by CASC to handle the launches of several Long March vehicles and a variety of concrete pads for small rocket launches.

• Launch Area 4: it's situated approximately 37.9 km south of Launch Area 3.
  • SLS-1 (LS-43/91): it has been used since 1999 for the launches of the crew-rated
    CZ-2F launcher and it's equipped with a nearby Vertical Assembly Facility. (40°57′38″N 100°17′53″E / 40.960671°N 100.298186°E / 40.960671; 100.298186 (SLS-1)
    )
  • SLS-2 (LS-43/94): operational since 2003, it has been hosting launches of various medium-lift launch vehicles of the Long March family, including CZ-2C, CZ-2D, CZ-4B and CZ-4C. (40°57′28″N 100°17′27″E / 40.957893°N 100.290944°E / 40.957893; 100.290944 (SLS-2))

• Commercial launch pads: situated in multiple locations south and east of Launch Area 4, they're used for small rocket launches of different government-owned and private companies.
  • LS-95: consisting in two pads, it has hosted launches of the
    Kuaizhou 1A
    launch on 11 January 2024.
    • Pad A (40°58′11″N 100°20′38″E / 40.9698°N 100.3439°E / 40.9698; 100.3439 (LS-95A)), the most used, accounts for a total of 47 launch attempts
    • Pad B (40°58′21″N 100°21′50″E / 40.9725°N 100.3639°E / 40.9725; 100.3639 (LS-95B)) hosted only 5 launches.
  • LS-96: a single pad handled by the private company LandSpace for the launches of its Zhuque-2 launch vehicle. It has hosted 3 launches so far, two of which successful. (40°54′54″N 100°14′43″E / 40.9149°N 100.2454°E / 40.9149; 100.2454 (LS-96))
  • LS-120: a single pad handled by the private company
    Tianlong-2 launch vehicle. It has hosted only one successful launch as of today. (40°51′20″N 100°11′57″E / 40.8556°N 100.1992°E / 40.8556; 100.1992 (LS-120)
    )
  • LS-130: a single pad handled by the state-owned company CAS Space for the launches of their Kinetica 1 launch vehicle. It has hosted 3 successful launches as of today. (40°49′07″N 100°13′26″E / 40.8186°N 100.2240°E / 40.8186; 100.2240 (LS-130))

Launches

Previous launches

Recent launches

Upcoming launches

Image gallery

• 
  KH-7 satellite image of the Shuang Cheng Tzu Missile Center A (Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre) in 1967.
• 
  A warning board at the gate.
• 
  Launch Vehicle Vertical Assembly Building.
• 
  Tower 1 and 2 behind a sign.
• 
  Launch tower.
• 
  Launch of LM-2D (VRSS-1 / Miranda).
• 
  Roll out of CZ-2F (Shenzhou-12).
• 
  Launch of CZ-2F(Shenzhou-12).
• 
  Roll out of CZ-2F (Shenzhou-13).
• 
  Roll out of CZ-2F (Shenzhou 14).

See also

• Chinese space program
• Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center
• Wenchang Satellite Launch Center
• Xichang Satellite Launch Center
• Hyperbola-1

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

• Base 20 Jiuquan Space Facility on GlobalSecurity.org