Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

40.956944444444100.29222222222Koordinaten: 40 ° 57 ' 25 "N, 100 ° 17' 32" E

The Jiuquan spaceport is the oldest and largest spaceport of the People's Republic of China. It is located about 200 km northeast of Jiuquan city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, located about 1,600 km from Beijing.

It was built in 1958 as the first of the three space ports the PRC. From him more missile launches were carried out as from all other missile launch sites. Named is the starting place for the closest major city Jiuquan, which is in contrast to the Baikonur Jiuquan in Gansu Province.

Jiuquan is commonly used to carry satellites into lower and medium orbits and to test medium and long- range missiles.

The center comprises 2800 km ² and is home to approximately 20,000 people.

The equipment and technique are similar to their Soviet counterparts, because the Soviet Union in the 1960s supported the Chinese in building the space station Jianquan.

From the Baikonur Jiuquan, China's first satellite Dong Fang Hong I started in 1970 The first manned space flights of the country. Shenzhou 5 (2003), Shenzhou 6 (2005) and Shenzhou 7 (2008) started here. In addition, on 29 September 2011 from this spaceport launched a rocket with the first Chinese space station Tiangong 1