China Gears Up For Wednesday Launch | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Mon, Oct 13, 2003

China Gears Up For Wednesday Launch

To Become Third Country With Humans In Space

Far from the secretive way this whole thing started, China is starting to open up its brand-new launch facility in the Gobi Desert to visitors and media.

The launch facility in the hidden city of Jiuquan is indeed a showcase. "Our launch center is simply the most beautiful," the Beijing Morning Post said in a headline of thick black-and-red Chinese characters. Colorful pictures released by the government showed a gleaming, rocketlike metal sculpture and blood-red flags lining a road into the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.

The Zenzhou mission is set to launch Wednesday night, but the secrecy that has enshrouded China's space program still cloaks many aspects of the event. China isn't saying how many "taikonauts" will go into space Wednesday for what is scheduled to be a 14-orbit mission. But they do talk about how pretty the launch site is.

Jiuquan is in the Gobi desert, near an ancient, crumbling section of the Great Wall. The city has been a center of space research since 1958, when Mao Zedong ran China and his insular approach to governing made sure the country was far behind the Soviet Union and the United States in what was then called the "space race."

The government's Xinhua News Agency, in a dispatch from Jiuquan, described streets lined with lamps shaped like rockets and spaceships. It described red willows and multicolored bushes along the avenues and said the Ruoshui River, which runs through town, has helped turn Jiuquan into "an oasis ... with unique scenery and a pleasant environment."

The cost of China's space program is reportedly staggering in a country where the average worker only makes $700 a year. For that reason, observers say the Chinese manned spaceflight program is cutting corners. Qi Faren, chief designer of the Zenzhou ("Divine Vessel") program, was quoted by the China Daily as saying he and his colleagues were confident about the mission despite the fact China had so far conducted only four unmanned test flights due to "limited funds."

FMI: www.cnsa.gov.cn

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Rutan Long-EZ

He Attempted To Restart The Engine Three Times. On The Third Restart Attempt, He Noticed That Flames Were Coming Out From The Right Wing Near The Fuel Cap Analysis: The pilot repor>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ICAS Perspectives - Advice for New Air Show Performers

From 2009 (YouTube Edition): Leading Air Show Performers Give Their Best Advice for Newcomers On December 6th through December 9th, the Paris Las Vegas Hotel hosted over 1,500 air >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.28.25)

Aero Linx: NASA ASRS ASRS captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community. The ASRS is an i>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.28.25)

“For our inaugural Pylon Racing Seminar in Roswell, we were thrilled to certify 60 pilots across our six closed-course pylon race classes. Not only did this year’s PRS >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC