Deep in the Gobi Desert, where the wind bites through your jacket and the horizon looks like a flat line drawn by a shaky hand, sits a place that basically runs China’s entire space ambition. It’s called the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC). You might have heard of it as "Base 10" or the Dongfeng Aerospace City. Honestly, if you’re looking for it on a map of the Jiuquan prefecture, you’re looking in the wrong place.
It's actually in Inner Mongolia. Ejin Banner, to be precise.
Why the wrong name? Cold War stuff. When the Soviet Union and China were getting this place ready in 1958, they wanted to keep the Americans guessing. If you name a base after a city 200 kilometers away, you've already won the first round of the intelligence game. It’s also China's oldest spaceport. Think of it as the Cape Canaveral of the East, but with way more dust and a lot more secrecy.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the only place in the country where humans actually get on rockets to go to the Tiangong space station. If you see a Shenzhou mission on the news, it started here. It’s rugged. It’s isolated. It’s also one of the most technologically advanced patches of dirt on the planet.
Why Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the Heart of the Program
Most people think a spaceport is just a big slab of concrete. It’s not. It’s an ecosystem. JSLC covers about 2,800 square kilometers. That is a massive footprint. It has its own railway, its own power grid, and even its own schools for the kids of the engineers who live there year-round.
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They chose this spot for a few very specific reasons. First, the weather is surprisingly cooperative. It gets around 300 days of clear skies a year. In the rocket business, clouds are the enemy. Second, it's flat. If a rocket stage falls off or something goes wrong during the early ascent, you aren't dropping debris on a major city like Shanghai. You're dropping it on sand and shrubs.
But it’s not just for the "big" stuff. While Wenchang handles the heavy-lift Long March 5 rockets because it's on the coast and can ship parts in by sea, Jiuquan is the workhorse for the Long March 2, 3, and 4 series.
The Infrastructure Nobody Talks About
You have the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB). This thing is a monster. Engineers stack the rockets vertically inside this hall, which protects them from those nasty Gobi sandstorms. Once it's ready, the whole platform—the rocket and the umbilical tower—rolls out to the pad on a set of giant rails.
It's a slow crawl. It takes hours. Watching a Shenzhou rocket move toward the pad at sunrise is probably the most "sci-fi" thing you'll ever see in real life.
There’s also the Technical Center. This is where the satellites get poked, prodded, and fueled. Fueling is the dangerous part. We are talking about hypergolic propellants like unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH). One whiff of that stuff and you’re having a very bad day. The safety protocols at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center are notoriously strict because the stakes are literally "blowing up the national pride."
The Human Element: Shenzhou and the Taikonauts
If you want to understand JSLC, you have to look at the manned missions. This is where Yang Liwei became the first Chinese person in space back in 2003. Since then, the pace has been relentless.
The taikonauts stay at a facility called Wentiange, or "Ask the Sky Pavilion." It sounds poetic, but it’s basically a high-tech hotel/quarantine zone. Before a launch, they do the traditional "going-out" ceremony. They stand behind a glass wall, report to the commander that they are ready, and then hop on a bus. It’s a huge deal in China. Millions of people watch it live.
Wait, here's a detail most people miss: The "Launch Room" isn't some glass-walled NASA-style theater. At least, not the main one. It’s often a bunker. For the manned launches, the command and control centers are reinforced because, well, rockets are basically controlled explosions.
Commercial Space is Crashing the Party
For a long time, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center was a military-only affair. Not anymore. China has a booming private space sector now. Companies like i-Space, LandSpace, and Galactic Energy are all launching from here.
LandSpace actually made history at Jiuquan in 2023 with the Zhuque-2. It was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit. Methane is the "holy grail" of rocket fuel right now because it's cleaner and easier to reuse engines. SpaceX is doing it with Starship, but LandSpace actually beat them to orbit with a methalox engine. That happened in the middle of the desert at Jiuquan.
This mix of old-school military discipline and "move fast and break things" startup culture is making the base a very weird, very busy place. You might see a state-owned Long March 2F on Pad 921 and then a tiny, private solid-fueled rocket taking off from a mobile launcher just a few miles away on the same afternoon.
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Misconceptions and Reality Checks
People often confuse Jiuquan with Xichang or Taiyuan. Xichang is in the mountains and usually handles communication satellites heading for geostationary orbit. Taiyuan is for sun-synchronous stuff. Wenchang is the new kid on the block for the heavy stuff.
Jiuquan is for the "low-earth orbit" (LEO) missions. It’s where the spy satellites go. it's where the manned missions go. It’s the "reliable" base.
Also, let’s talk about the name again. Everyone calls it Jiuquan because that’s the nearest big city with an airport. But if you try to take a taxi from Jiuquan to the launch center without the right papers, you’ll get turned around at a military checkpoint long before you see a rocket. The base is technically a closed city. It has its own postal code and its own laws.
The Evolution of the Desert Port
In the early days, the 1960s and 70s, life at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center was brutal. We're talking about scientists living in tents and digging holes in the ground to stay warm. They were building the Dongfeng-1 and Dongfeng-2 missiles.
Now? It’s a tech hub. They have high-speed internet, gyms, and modern housing. But the isolation is still there. You are still hundreds of miles from anything that looks like a major metropolis. This isolation is actually a security feature. It makes it very hard for anyone to "accidentally" wander into the telemetry stations.
What’s Next for Jiuquan?
China is planning to land humans on the moon by 2030. While some of that hardware will likely fly from Wenchang, the expertise and the training for the crew are rooted in Jiuquan. The base is currently undergoing upgrades to handle more frequent launches. We aren't talking about one launch a month anymore; we are looking at a future where JSLC might be popping off rockets every week.
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They are also expanding the landing zones for reusable rockets. If China wants to compete with the Falcon 9, they need a place to land their boosters. The flat, empty plains around Jiuquan are perfect for that. LandSpace and others are already testing vertical landing technology right there in the desert.
How to Track Missions at JSLC
If you're a space nerd, you want to know when things are happening. Since the Chinese government doesn't always put out a calendar months in advance, you have to look for "NOTAMs" (Notices to Air Missions). When a big chunk of the sky over the Gobi Desert is suddenly closed to airplanes, you know something is about to go up.
- Watch the Weather: If there's a sandstorm blowing in, the launch is a no-go.
- Check Amateur Radio: Serious trackers often pick up signals from the base's telemetry.
- Look for Shenzhou: These are the big ones. They usually happen twice a year now to rotate the crews on Tiangong.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center isn't just a relic of the Cold War. It’s the engine of China’s future in the stars. Whether you agree with the politics or not, what they have built in the middle of a literal wasteland is a feat of engineering that's hard to ignore.
Actionable Insights for Space Enthusiasts
If you want to dive deeper into what's happening at the world's most active desert spaceport, start by following the orbital data. Use tools like CelesTrak or Heavens-Above to track the Shenzhou craft after they leave Jiuquan; you can actually see the space station pass over your house if the timing is right. For the tech side, keep an eye on the "Zhuque" and "Hyperbola" rocket series from the private firms at JSLC. These are the companies currently testing the reusable technology that will define the next decade of flight. Finally, check the official Xinhua news feeds specifically during the late spring and autumn months, as these remain the peak launch windows for manned missions due to the stable desert climate.