Base 603

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Coordinates: 30 ° 52 ′ 52 ″  N , 119 ° 12 ′ 11 ″  E

Map: China
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Base 603
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People's Republic of China

The base 603 (603基地, Pinyin 603 Jidi , too) rocket launch site Guangde called (广德火箭发射场, Pinyin Guǎngdé Huǒjiàn Fāshèchǎng ), was a launch site for sounding rockets in the south of the greater community Shijie , county-level city Guangde , in the Chinese province of Anhui . From 1960 to 1966 rockets of various types of the T-7 were launched there, reaching heights of up to 125 km.

history

On February 19, 1960, the prototype of the Institute for Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Engineering Office for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Shanghai under the direction of Zhao Jiuzhang and Wang Xiji was built in the Laogang municipality, a few kilometers south of today's Shanghai Pudong International Airport developed sounding rocket T-7 launched. This model, called the T-7M, was only half the size of the original with a length of 5.30 m and was primarily used to test the rocket drive developed by the engineers independently, without Soviet help . Since the launch site was right by the sea, it would have been difficult to recover a real research rocket equipped with measuring instruments and recording devices. Therefore, in February 1960, the Academy of Sciences decided to find an extensive and remote location in the mountains of eastern China where a larger missile test site could be set up. In March 1960, members of the former " Group 581 " - since December 1959 the Second Department of the Institute for Geophysics (中国科学院 地球物理 所 二 部) - together with representatives of the engineering office for mechanical engineering and electrical engineering traveled several times to Eastern China to visit places in question inspect. In the province of Anhui, 7 km south of the large community Shijie in the area of ​​the administrative village Maolin of the then Guangde county, 200 km west of Shanghai, they finally found a 153 hectare large, more or less round plateau surrounded by mountains, which was suitable for their purposes was suitable.

Construction work began in March 1960 under the direction of Yang Nansheng (杨南生, 1921–2013), the deputy director of the engineering office for mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, which is why the site has the internal name "Basis 603", ie - according to the Chinese date format - "Base built in March 1960" was given. Within six months was starting control center building , an engine test building, a solid propellant booster -Befüllungsgebäude, a liquid propellant -Betankungsgebäude, a building for the calibration of equipment in the head of the rocket, a receiving station for telemetry data, several radars, a meteorological station and residential buildings erected. The launch tower for guiding the rockets, a 52 m high steel grid structure, was built by the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai , plus a 7 km long road that connected the site with the G318 national road (today's X018 county road). The costs were borne jointly by the Institute for Geophysics and the Engineering Office for Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Since there is a strategically important river crossing in Shijie, the place has been known as "Shijiedu" (誓 节 渡), or "Shijie crossing", since the Tang Dynasty . The name “Shijiedu” is therefore also used for the rocket launch site abroad.

On September 1, 1960, the first full-size T-7 took off from base 603 and reached an altitude of 60 km. A good 30 more launches were to follow by 1966, but not all of them successfully. For example, at the end of December 1960, Qian Xuesen , deputy head of the Ministry of Defense's 5th Missile Research Institute , traveled to Anhui to personally oversee a T-7 launch. This start failed. Nevertheless, the Defense Technology Commission of the People's Liberation Army had complete confidence in the young engineers - the average age of the base staff was 24 - and commissioned the Academy of Sciences in May 1961 to create a profile of the high atmosphere up to a height of 100 km : Temperature, air pressure , air density and winds. For this purpose, the construction of an improved version of the T-7, the T-7A, was approved in January 1962, which, in addition to the actual rocket with a liquid propulsion system, had a solid fuel booster as the first stage, with altitudes of over 100 km, i.e. up to into the ionosphere . The first flight of a T-7 with meteorological payloads took place on August 4, 1963, the first test flight of the T-7A in December 1963.

As early as January 1963, the Shanghai engineering office for mechanical and electrical engineering was subordinated to the 5th research institute of the Ministry of Defense as the 8th branch institute. After the 5th Research Institute was detached from the Ministry of Defense on January 4, 1965 and became independent as the "Seventh Ministry for the Mechanical Engineering Industry", the Shanghai engineers moved to the Seventh Ministry, where they were named "8. Engineering office ”continued to form a separate unit. The Shanghai engineering office moved to Beijing. Today the engineering office, still located in Beijing, as "Research Institute 508", known externally as the " Research Institute for Space- Related Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Beijing ", belongs to the Chinese Academy for Space Technology, where it deals with composite materials , optical remote sensing and laser reconnaissance from space , but especially with landing systems. The foundation for the latter was laid on base 603. Both the missiles themselves and the detachable payload capsule were fitted with parachutes that made the landing of the components so smooth that they could be reused.

Since 1958 there was a research group at what was then the Institute for Biophysics of the Academy of Sciences, which dealt with the development of life support systems for living beings flying in rockets. In 1960, on the instructions of the State Planning Commission at the State Council of the People's Republic of China , this group was expanded to become the “ Research Laboratory for Space Biology ”. Its research goals for the first five years were defined as follows:

  • Research into the influence that environmental factors such as gravity and cosmic radiation have on living beings in the high atmosphere, in particular the strong acceleration when launching a rocket and weightlessness at high altitudes.
  • By means of physiological , biochemical and morphological investigations, the development of methods to protect living beings from the said effects.

After Yuri Alexejewitsch Gagarin became the first person to circle the earth on April 12, 1961, enthusiasm for space travel also grew in China. It was decided to conduct flight experiments with live test animals. On July 19, 1964, a specially modified T-7A, the T-7A / S1 - the "S" stands for 生物 or shēngwù , ie "living beings" - eight mice and twelve test tubes with fruit flies , single cells and Taking enzymes up to 70 km in a suborbital flight .

The research laboratory for space biology had meanwhile been greatly expanded. Around 100 scientists in three departments dealt with animal experiments on the ground, the selection and training of experimental animals for suborbital flights and the construction of the corresponding devices. After rats and mice were sent back to the high atmosphere on June 1st and 5th, 1965, the dogs Xiaobao (小 豹, little panther ) and Shanshan (珊珊, elegant striding) traveled on the 15th. or July 28, 1966 with a T-7A / S2, which had a larger payload capsule, in which, in addition to telemetry for the body functions of the animals, an 8-mm camera was installed, which monitored the animals' reactions at launch and in the Filmed weightlessness. All animals survived the flights safely and were brought back to Beijing by Bei Shizhang , the director of the Institute for Biophysics, where the dogs were later mated and gave birth to healthy puppies.

Meanwhile the Cultural Revolution had broken out, and otherwise the situation had changed. On August 1, 1961, when three years before the Shanghai engineering office had been moved for mechanical and electrical engineering to Beijing so more of was at the direction of the CPC Central Committee , the State Council and the Central Military Commission in Shanghai, the " Second Bureau of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering " was founded. In 1964, the five laboratories, which had once formed the 2nd branch of the 5th Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense , were moved from Beijing to Shanghai to support the new facility, which was to deal with the development of anti-aircraft missiles . In April 1965 work began there on the Hongqi 2 , which in the climate of the time was considered more important than sounding rockets. Funding for base 603 has been gradually reduced. While the Hongqi 2 successfully completed flight tests in July 1966, the flight of the dog Shanshan should have been the last start in Anhui for the time being.

Future development

The 153 hectare site is now owned by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation , a successor organization to the Seventh Ministry. The second bureau for mechanical engineering and electrical engineering was renamed in June 1982 to "Shanghai Space Office", a name by which the company is known to this day, although from March 1993 it was part of the "umbrella company for space industry" as the " Shanghai Academy for Space Technology" and when it was split up into a primarily civil and a primarily military part on July 1, 1999, it became a subsidiary of CASC. On January 13, 2010, the Shanghai Academy, often abbreviated to "SAST" because of the English name Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology , sent a group of experts to Anhui to inspect the site. After harmonious negotiations with the then county government of Guangde , the company decided to put Base 603 back into operation and to build a complete test facility for space travel there. In 2012, the demolition of the old buildings and the 800 kV high-voltage line on the base began, and for this purpose the "New Maolin Space Village" (茆 林 航天 新村) with modern administrative and residential buildings on the northern edge of the site, near the natural village of Xianfeng built. The facility now officially operates as "Basis 603 of the Shanghai Academy of Space Technology" (上海 航天 技术 研究院 603 基地). The first systems were already in operation there in 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. T-7M in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 27, 2019 (English).
  2. 解密 603 : 中国 探空 火箭 发祥地. In: news.sina.com.cn. June 13, 2012, Retrieved September 27, 2019 (Chinese).
  3. 中国 航天 第一 村: 空间 科学 探测 第一步 从 安徽 这里 迈出. In: mzfxw.com. July 20, 2019, accessed September 27, 2019 (Chinese).
  4. 王希 季: 箭 击 长空 忆 当年. In: cas.cn. Retrieved November 23, 2019 (Chinese).
  5. 院 史> 历史 沿革 >> 1960 年. In: web.archive.org. October 30, 2001, Retrieved September 27, 2019 (Chinese).
  6. 解密 603 : 中国 探空 火箭 发祥地. In: news.sina.com.cn. June 13, 2012, Retrieved September 27, 2019 (Chinese). The national road, which has meanwhile been converted into a motorway, now runs 700 m further south, past the city of Shijie.
  7. T-7 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 27, 2019 (English).
  8. 北京 空间 机电 研究所. In: cast.cn. April 21, 2016, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  9. 解密 603 : 中国 探空 火箭 发祥地. In: news.sina.com.cn. June 13, 2012, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  10. T-7A in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 27, 2019 (English).
  11. 贝 时 璋 院士 : 开展 宇宙 生物学 研究. In: tech.sina.com.cn. November 15, 2006, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  12. 中国 航天 第一 村: 空间 科学 探测 第一步 从 安徽 这里 迈出. In: mzfxw.com. July 20, 2019, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  13. T-7A in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 27, 2019 (English).
  14. 胡明浩: 上海 航天 创 我国 航天 史 多项 第一. In: archives.sh.cn. March 16, 2015, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  15. 解密 603 : 中国 探空 火箭 发祥地. In: news.sina.com.cn. June 13, 2012, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  16. 中国 航天 第一 村: 空间 科学 探测 第一步 从 安徽 这里 迈出. In: mzfxw.com. July 20, 2019, Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  17. 安徽省 宣 城市 广 德 市 誓 节 镇 茆 林村. In: tcmap.com.cn. Retrieved September 29, 2019 (Chinese).
  18. 洛米 粒: 走遍 广 德 : 探寻 中国 航天 第一 村 茆 林村 之 源. In: sohu.com. August 27, 2018, Retrieved September 29, 2019 (Chinese).
  19. 八 院 简介. In: sast.cn. Retrieved July 5, 2020 (Chinese).