Construction Begins on China’s First Commercial Spaceport

Global Times reports that officials have broken ground on China’s first commercial spaceport in Wenchang, which is located in Hainan province.

Industry insiders said that the Hainan Commercial Launch Site will further improve the launching capability of domestic commercial carrier rockets.

“Hainan will make full use of the synergistic advantage of the launch site and policies of the FTP, striving to build Wenchang into a top-ranking international space city, and to accelerate the construction of industrial chains of rocket launch, satellite and data,” Feng Fei, governor of the Hainan provincial government, said on Wednesday during the groundbreaking ceremony of the commercial spacecraft launch site.

The commercial launch site will be built in a separate part of the current Wenchang International Aerospace City, an employee of the administrative bureau of the aerospace city told the Global Times on Wednesday.

According to the website of Wenchang International Aerospace City, which is one of the 11 key zones of the Hainan FTZ, the new commercial spaceport is a step forward in its commercial space launch function.

China has four spaceports that are largely used for government launches. Commercial companies have used the existing spaceports for a small number of launches.