(USAtoday)
Updated: 2007-09-24 09:38

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-09-23-china-spacecenter_N.htm?csp=34

China is planning to build a new satellite launch site - the country's fourth - to boost its burgeoning space program, state media reported Sunday.

The facility will be located in Wenchang on the southern island province of Hainan, about 38 miles away from the provincial capital Haikou, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The site is close to the equator which makes it well suited for launches because lower latitudes have stronger centrifugal forces, reducing the amount of energy required to launch rockets, Xinhua said.

The plan has been approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, and the Central Military Commission, it said, without giving any details on construction or a completion date.

Telephones at the State Council and Wenchang government offices rang unanswered on Sunday.

China takes great pride in its space program and sees it as a way to validate its claims to be one of the world's leading scientific nations.

In 2003, China launched its first manned space mission, making it the third country to send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.

China began building its first rocket launch site in Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert in 1958. The other two facilities are in Taiyuan in Shanxi province in the north and Xichang in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

According to the People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, Jiuquan will continue to launch re-entry satellites and manned spacecraft after the Hainan site is completed.

Taiyuan will be responsible for satellites that orbit the sun, while the Xichang operations will be used for urgent or emergency missions, the paper said.