Xichang Cosmodrome

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Coordinates: 28 ° 14 ′ 45.7 "  N , 102 ° 1 ′ 35.6"  E

Xichang Cosmodrome (China)
Jiuquan
Jiuquan
Taiyuan
Taiyuan
Xichang
Xichang
Wenchang
Wenchang
Cosmodrome in the People's Republic of China

The Xichang Cosmodrome ( Chinese  西昌 卫星 发射 中心 , Pinyin Xīchāng Wèixīngfāshèzhōngxìn ), also known as "27. Base of Chinese People's Liberation Army for testing and training "(中国人民解放军第二十七试验训练基地, Pinyin Zhongguo Rénmín Jiefangjun Dì Èrshíqī Shiyan Xùnliàn Jidi ), a spaceport in the Autonomous County in Liangshan Yi (涼山彝族自治州, Pinyin Liangshan Yizu Zìzhìzhōu ), Sichuan Province , People's Republic of China . The head office is located in the road district Xicheng (西城街道) the district capital Xichang , Northern Hang Tian Road 136. The actual rocket launch site is located 64 kilometers northwest of the city center, in a valley of the municipality Zeyuan (泽远乡) in the south of the circle Mianning .

history

The Xichang Cosmodrome owes its existence to a series of misunderstandings. At a meeting on September 12, 1964, Vice Premier Nie Rongzhen , the Chinese government’s commissioner for strategic nuclear weapons, identified Japan, the Philippines, Guam and the American mainland as targets for the Chinese nuclear missiles , but not the Soviet Union and Taiwan. When the rocket scientist Qian Xuesen launched a Dongfeng 2A medium-range missile at the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in Inner Mongolia on October 27, 1966 , which carried a 12 kT nuclear warhead to the Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site, 800 km away , where it detonated in the atmosphere The Soviet Union was subjectively threatened and was considering a first nuclear strike in September 1969, when tensions between the two countries had led to armed clashes on the border river Ussuri and the Djungarian Gate . Defense Minister Lin Biao , who thought the Soviet negotiating delegation, which had been announced for October 20, 1969 in Beijing, was a deception, issued his "Order No. 1" on October 18, 1969 (林 副 统帅 一号 战斗 号令, Pinyin Lín Fùtǒngshuài Yīhào Zhàndòu Hàolìng ), in which he instructed the 2nd Artillery Corps to prepare the Chinese nuclear missiles for launch; all units of the People's Liberation Army were to be widely dispersed so as not to offer a good target in the event of a Soviet attack.

The alert was lifted two months later, but the concept of dispersed positions was retained. When in December 1969 the plan of a manned space flight with the then planned Shuguang spaceship similar to the American Gemini capsules , also known as "Project 714" (714 工程, Pinyin 714 Gōngchéng ), entered a concrete phase, it was decided to do this to build a new cosmodrome further away from the Soviet border. First, topographical surveys were carried out at 25 locations in nine different provinces, whereupon 16 locations were shortlisted, which were ultimately reduced to three candidates. Originally, Yuexi County in Liangshan Autonomous District was favored by the Yi ethnic group , but there were problems with transport links and electricity. Then Major General Li Fuze (李福泽, 1914–1996), the commander of the Jiuquan Cosmodrome, traveled to Sichuan with a group of experts from his unit in June 1970 to get an idea of ​​the situation. The men decided that Mianning County, also in Liangshan County, would be the best location for the new cosmodrome, a choice approved by the State Council of the People's Republic of China and the Central Military Commission on October 10, 1970 . The project in Sichuan was given the number 7201, construction work should be completed in January 1972.

Launch system in the Xichang Cosmodrome (front launch pad 3)
The new railway line 7201 from Manshuiwan to the cosmodrome (back)

No sooner had the State Council and ZMK, i.e. Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong , approved the choice of location than the pioneer regiment stationed at the Jiuquan Cosmodrome loaded its heavy equipment on a special train and broke under the leadership of Zhang Youshun (张友顺), the deputy commander of the logistics department , to Sichuan. Almost at their destination, at Puxiong train station , they were ambushed by a group of Yi bandits, but after the soldiers got out with guns in hand, they fled. Near the Manshuiwan train station (Man 水湾), at the entrance of the side valley that leads to today's cosmodrome, the pioneers set up a tent camp and began building a bridge over the Anning He (the road from Xichang to the north in late November 1970) on the east bank of the river while the cosmodrome is west of the river). The bridge was completed at the end of March 1971, then a 23 km long road was built from there to the Bread Basket Valley (簸 箩 沟, Pinyin Bōluó Gōu ), the location of the three launch ramps.

By spring 1972, the area for launch ramp 1 had been leveled, a fuel store dug into the mountainside had been set up and the construction pit for the test hall had been dug. Then the Shuguang program was stopped on May 13, 1972. The plans for the cosmodrome were changed again and again until the very ambitious plan of a manned space flight was finally buried in early 1975.

On March 1, 1975, Mao Zedong approved the development of a geostationary communications satellite, named "Project 331" after the date. At a lower latitude, rocket launches give a stronger thrust from the Earth's rotation, which is why the Xichang cosmodrome was designated as the launch site for these satellites. In September 1975, as part of a major reorganization, work area 7 (第七 工区, Pinyin Dì Qī Gōngqū ) was removed from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome , ie "Base 20", and relocated to Sichuan. Since then, the cosmodrome there has been called “27. Chinese People's Liberation Army Base for Testing and Training ”. The "unit 63790" (63790 部队, Pinyin 63790 Bùduì ) stationed there was upgraded from battalion to regiment on October 1, 1975, and the first commander of Base 27 was Major General Zhang Min (张敏, 1925-2017).

1970 began the construction of the launch pad 3 and the telecommunications center (通信 总站, Pinyin Tōngxìn Zǒngzhàn ). In September 1981, a group of more than 60 experts from all departments of the cosmodrome traveled to Inner Mongolia for training purposes in the preparation and launch of a Feng Bao 1 launcher that left the Jiuquan Cosmodrome on September 20, 1981 three research satellites of the type Shijian 2 (实践 二号, Pinyin Shíjiàn Èr Hào , so "Practice 2") put into orbit. This was the first time that China used the so-called one-rocket-three satellite technology (一箭 三星, Pinyin Yī Jiàn Sān Xīng ) - successfully on the first attempt.

Launch pad 3 was the first launch pad to be completed by 1982, and the first launch took place on January 29, 1984: a medium-weight, three-stage Changzheng 3 launcher designed to carry a Dong Fang Hong II geostationary communications satellite into orbit. This launch was only partially successful, the satellite was unable to reach its planned orbit. During the next attempt on April 8, 1984, all systems worked, the satellite broadcast television programs and telephone calls in a four-year trial run. By November 18, 2004, 16 launch vehicles had been launched. After that, in preparation for the moon missions (see below), the old ramp was demolished and rebuilt by 2007.

On April 12, 2007, the first space mission launched from the new launch pad 3 was a Changzheng 3A with the Beidou M1 navigation satellite . After a test phase lasting several years, it was the first in a series of 43 satellites to date of the Beidou satellite navigation system of the People's Liberation Army, which had been launched until November 2018. Beidou is similar to the American Global Positioning System and is also available to civil users in peacetime.

Start ramp 2 (rear start ramp 3)

In connection with the development of the commercial launch vehicle Changzheng 2E , the first Chinese rocket with additional boosters , launch pad 2 was built between 1989 and 1990 at a distance of 2 kilometers from the planned location of launch pad 1. This was a joint project with the Thor Delta division of McDonnell Douglas ; Robert A. Steinhauer (1935–2005) of Hughes Space and Communications was in charge of building supervision . Since there was no minimum wage in China at that time, migrant workers came cheaper than machines. Therefore, when the monsoon rains set in, the construction pit for the new launch ramp was largely drained manually, using buckets and wash bowls, and 600 t of steel reinforcement for the concrete floor of the exhaust gas diversion trenches were carried down by the workers on their shoulders. A dedicated hall was built for the final assembly of the AsiaSat 1 communications satellite manufactured or refurbished by Hughes for the Hong Kong Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company . For this, Hughes required the American clean room class 100,000, which means that there could not be more than 100,000 fine dust particles per cubic foot in the air. As there was a lack of modern equipment, the workers wiped the 3,000 m² hall floor several dozen times with silk towels and medical alcohol, thereby actually achieving the required standard. On April 7, 1990, the AsiaSat 1 satellite was launched into orbit with ease and precision by a Changzheng 2E launcher. This was the first foreign order for the Xichang Cosmodrome.

In contrast to launch pad 3, launch pad 2 has a movable maintenance tower (on the left in the picture) and an immovable supply tower . From launch pad 2, the most powerful Chinese rocket for geostationary satellites, the Changzheng 3B / E , is used today. In the technical zone, 3 kilometers south of the two launch ramps, rocket stages and satellites are being prepared. The rocket is mounted directly on the ramp.

Moon missions

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center is mainly to communications satellites in orbit to carry, but also launched the Chinese lunar probes all from here. The Lunar Program of the People's Republic of China (中国 探 月 工程, Pinyin Zhōnggúo Tànyuè Gōngchéng ) operated by the China National Space Administration was officially launched on March 1, 2003, the first step being the launch of a lunar orbit planned for 2007. The basic planning for this mission was completed in September 2004, the development of the prototype followed by the end of 2005, the final tests began in July 2006, and in December 2006 the Chang'e- probe named after a fairy living on the moon was ready. 1 finished in principle. At the same time, launch pad 3 on the Xichang cosmodrome, from where the launcher was supposed to take off, was demolished and rebuilt. The lattice tower was finished by the end of September 2006, the supply lines, measuring cables etc. were installed in October, the first tests began at the beginning of 2007, and in March 2007 the new launch pad 3 was ready for use.

In contrast to regular satellite launches, the Chang'e-1 lunar probe at the Xichang location only had a launch window of three days of 35 minutes each on three dates a year. The launch was originally planned for April 2007, then the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation , the manufacturer of the probe, announced on March 15, 2007 that the launch would have to be postponed to September for reasons that were not explained in detail. October 2007 envisaged. On April 12, 2007, a navigation satellite was initially launched from the new launch pad 3, which had nothing to do with the moon mission.

After the accident on February 15, 1996 with 6 deaths (see below), which can be followed worldwide on television, a quality offensive was started at the cosmodrome under the motto "Correct and Reform" (整改, Pinyin Zhěng Gǎi ) and the administration of the cosmodrome was started confident that everything would go according to plan this time. At the beginning of October, tickets for the 2,000 seats in the visitors' gallery began to be sold at a price of 800 yuan each (about 800 euros in terms of purchasing power). But then the weather worsened and it was consistently overcast and rainy, not uncommon for Sichuan at this time of year either. 65 hours before the planned start, Dipl.-Ing. Che Zhuming (车 著名, * 1963) found a fatal software error during the last inspection of the Changzheng 3A launcher, which could cause the rocket to go out of control shortly after takeoff, explode and debris falling on populated areas east of the cosmodrome.

The problem was that if the start preparations were canceled, the next start window would not be available until the following April. On the other hand, an accident with debris falling over a large area, as in 1995, would have had a negative impact on the reputation of Chinese space travel. Che Zhuming and his team went into the server room and compared several 100,000 lines of source code over a period of more than 30 hours until the error was finally found and fixed. On October 24, 2007 at 6:05 pm local time, the lunar probe lifted off from launch pad 3 as planned.

A Changzheng 3C , a three-stage rocket with two additional boosters , was used as a launch vehicle for the launch of the next lunar orbiter, the Chang'e-2 (the 2007 reserve probe equipped with improved instruments) . The start on October 1, 2010, the Chinese national holiday, at 6:59 p.m. local time was completely undramatic. Only when the missile passed over Taiwan at dusk did some excitement arise there.

During the next lunar mission with a Changzheng 3B launcher, which the lunar probe Chang'e-3 including the rover Jadehase carried into space in the early morning of December 2, 2013, there was damage again. The Changzheng 3B is a three-stage rocket with four boosters that are detonated after a good two minutes of burning; the first stage of the rocket is separated from the rocket after 155 seconds of burning time. In the first three minutes of the flight, this results in a potential debris field 50 to 70 km long and 30 km wide. For this reason, 20,000 residents east of the cosmodrome were evacuated that night, as well as 160,000 residents under the trajectory of the rocket in the neighboring province of Hunan . Hit by missile parts that had been dropped as planned - this was not an accident, but the normal process after the launch - two houses in the Suining district in Hunan, 1600 km away from the cosmodrome, were in fact hit . The roofs of the wooden houses were broken through, for which the homeowners received compensation of 10,800 and 5,200 yuan, respectively. A lot of money for the poor area.

In the Chang'e-4 mission five years later the landing should take place on the far side of the moon. Therefore, the relay satellite Queqiao (鹊桥, Pinyin Quèqiáo , " Elsternbrücke ") had to be launched so that the control center in Beijing (北京 航天 飞行 控制 中心, Pinyin Běijīng Hángtiān Fēixíng Kòngzhì Zhōngxìn ) could communicate with the probe and the rover. This presented the cosmodrome with a number of challenges. A Changzheng 4C was planned as a launch vehicle for the relay satellite , a type that had never been used here before. Therefore, in April 2016, Zhang Guangbin (张光斌, * 1982), who later became the head of the launch control room, and around a dozen other cadres were sent to the Jiuquan Cosmodrome to meet with employees of the Shanghai Academy for Space Technology , a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and manufacturer of the Changzheng 4C to familiarize themselves with the requirements for testing and launching this type of missile. At the beginning of 2017, the Xichang Cosmodrome began assembling the teams for the individual assembly and testing steps, which were then trained by Zhang Guangbin and his colleagues.

Another problem was that launch pad 3 had been converted in 2015 for Changzheng 3A and Changzheng 2C missiles, the third stage of which uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen or hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene as fuel, while the Changzheng 4C conventionally runs on 1,1-dimethylhydrazine and nitrous oxide needs to be refueled. After numerous meetings with representatives of the Shanghai Academy for Space Technology, it was decided to convert the launch pad. From the beginning of 2017, fuel lines, work platforms and the height of the swivel arms were adapted to the new missile type. This work was completed in April 2018, and starting procedures began to be practiced in the middle of that month.

On April 15, 2018, the relay satellite was delivered by train to the cosmodrome, on May 8, the launcher was fully assembled and set up, on May 14, the satellite was mounted in the rocket, and on May 21, 2018 at 05: 28 local time, the launch vehicle took off with the probe. The relay satellite swiveled into transfer orbit 25 minutes after take-off without accidents and precisely and reached the Lagrange point L 2 behind the moon on May 29, 2018 , where it remained parked in a Halo orbit from June 14, 2018 . The actual lunar probe, which together with the 140 kg heavy "Jadehase 2" rover and its own fuel had a takeoff weight of 3780 kg, was launched into space on December 8, 2018 at 02:23 local time with a Changzheng 3B / E launcher successfully landed on the back of the moon on January 3, 2019.

Tectonic situation

The Xichang Cosmodrome is located on the Anninghe Fault (安宁 河 断裂带, Pinyin Ānníng Hé Duànlièdài ), where a major earthquake occurs about every 100 to 200 years. In 1536 and 1850 there were earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale , with the then district town of Xichang being completely destroyed in 1850, followed by a 6.7 earthquake in Mianning in 1952. Major General Li Fuze was informed of this in June 1970 in Xichang, but after considering other factors such as the altitude of 1,500 m above sea level, the low latitude, the plentiful water supply and the good transport links, he decided on this location.

Security issues

The decision in favor of the Xichang location , which was made under time pressure during the Cultural Revolution , was problematic not only from a tectonic point of view . While the Jiuquan Cosmodrome is located in the sparsely populated Gobi Desert , the Liangshan Mountains are an ancient cultural landscape with countless deserted courtyards and entire villages of the Yi ethnic group, even in the most remote valleys. This was clear to everyone involved, and when the warhead of a Dongfeng 5 ICBM launched in northern China was due to land in neighboring Yanyuan County in early December 1981 - without an atomic charge but with a magnetic recorder that stored data on the missile's flight behavior - the order came to an area from To clear 20 × 20 km around the intended landing site. Unit 63790 moved out with 40 trucks, but since there were no telephones and few roads in the mountains, contacting the local population was extremely difficult, not to mention convincing the Tibetan- speaking Yi to accept theirs To leave yards.

The original plan was for the evacuation to be completed on December 5, 1981, and the ICBM to be launched on December 6. Due to problems with the Dongfeng 5, which is still being tested, the start was delayed until the afternoon of December 7th. Some of the farmers felt that they couldn't wait that long and, despite attempts to stop them, left the assembly center. The local cadres were aware of the importance of the matter and helped to bring the "fugitives" back. In the end, the warhead landed without harming anyone, but the entire evacuation operation had not only been extremely difficult, but also extremely costly. Thereupon, Lieutenant Wang Chuanyou (王传友, * 1937), the deputy head of the Political Department (政治部, Pinyin Zhèngzhì Bù ) of the Cosmodrome suggested that future missile launches should not be evacuated. His proposal was accepted.

Another problem is what Major General Li Fuze called the "hidden location" during the on-site visit in June 1970, ie the location of the cosmodrome in a valley basin. If a missile gains altitude during launch and emerges from the shelter of the surrounding mountains, it can suddenly be exposed to cross winds that the control systems cannot always compensate for. This was particularly the case with the Changzheng 2E . In the first accident on December 21, 1992, gusts of wind and the missile control measures triggered by it, the load was so high that the payload fairing was destroyed and thrown off. The rocket nevertheless reached its intended orbit and there deployed the (albeit completely destroyed) communications satellite of the Optus B2 type (an order for the Australian military). In the second incident on January 26, 1995, the rocket went completely out of control in the same situation and exploded 50 seconds after launch. The debris fell a few kilometers east of the launch site in a village, and the "shrapnel scattering" caused fires over a relatively large area. 21 people were killed.

In the next accident early in the morning on February 15, 1996, the cause was not the cross winds, but rather the inertial navigation system of the Changzheng 3B launcher, which made its maiden flight that day. The consequences of the accident were exacerbated by the location of the cosmodrome in the valley. 2 seconds after the launch of launch pad 3, the rocket, which was supposed to carry a communications satellite from the Luxembourg company Intelsat , tipped sideways and fell 20 seconds later onto the mountainside northeast of the main gate of the cosmodrome, only 1,850 m from the launch pad. 250 tons of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide exploded, immediately destroying more than 80 buildings in the cosmodrome residential complex southwest of the main gate. Due to the narrowness of the valley, a huge pressure wave could build up, which raced to the southeast, in the direction of Manshuiwan and overturned numerous houses in the village of Mayelin (麻叶 林村), only 1 km from the gate of the cosmodrome . In addition, the rocket fuel explosion released toxic gases that penetrated the control center. The technicians there protected themselves with damp towels held over their mouths. After the clean-up work was finished, it was found that 6 people had been killed by debris, including a technician from the testing group (试验 队, Pinyin Shìyànduì ) of the China National Space Administration who had not gone into a shelter at the start, contrary to the regulations. as well as an engineer from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology . A total of 57 people were injured, some seriously, not only from rubble, but also from broken glass.

The very low number of victims in view of the large number of buildings destroyed is due to the fact that after the accident on January 26, 1995, no forced evacuations were carried out during rocket launches as in 1981 - which was due to the loss of reputation of the People's Liberation Army in the Jiang Zemin era (1989-2004) would not have been feasible at all - but the population was asked to leave an area of ​​2.5 km around the cosmodrome and to go to open spaces in an area of ​​2.5 km to 6 km, the same procedure as after an earthquake if aftershocks are feared. In order to increase the acceptance of the nights spent outdoors, film screenings were organized by the cosmodrome administration in the schoolyards, which served as assembly points, and children were kept quiet with sweets.

The financial damage to the cosmodrome was immense. On October 26, 1985, the Chinese government had given permission to launch commercial satellite launches with Changzheng 2 and Changzheng 3 launch vehicles on the international market, and they had made good money from 1990 onwards. After the accident on February 15, 1996, and another false start on August 18, 1996, three contracts that had already been concluded were terminated by foreign customers, two contracts were put on hold and negotiations were broken off on two projects that had already been initialed .

Transport links

Qingshan Airport (西昌 青山 机场, Pinyin Xīchāng Qīngshān Jīchǎng ), to which five Chinese airlines offered scheduled flights from Beijing , Chengdu , Haikou, etc., is located about 50 km south of the cosmodrome and 15 km north of the city center of Xichang . The airport has a taxiway 3600 m long, so that Boeing 747 , Antonov An-124 and Lockheed C-130 transport aircraft can land there. Currently, however, the missiles and payloads are all delivered via the 7201 railway line, which branches off the Chengdu-Kunming Railway in Manshuiwan, 37 km north of Xichang . Visitors can also reach the cosmodrome via the Z005 or Z990 county roads, which branch off the Beijing-Kunming highway at about Manshuiwan . After crossing Anning He , there are still 23 km to the cosmodrome.

See also

literature

  • 冯志远 (主编): 航天 公园 博览 ： 航天 基地 游览.辽 海 出版社, 沈 阳 2009.

Web links

Commons : Xichang Cosmodrome  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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  58. ↑ For comparison: when, in a similar accident on the Jiuquan Cosmodrome on March 21, 1962, a Dongfeng 2 medium-range missile got out of control after 69 seconds of flight time, i.e. with its tanks still well-filled, and crashed in the desert, where it pushed through the wide open terrain the explosion pressure could develop freely in all directions, only one latrine house was destroyed. - Mark Wade: DF-2 in Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 29, 2018.
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