The Economist Asia - 20.01.2018

The EconomistJanuary 20th 2018 27

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N

ATTY yellow carts whizz tourists

around Wenchang space port, a

sprawling launch site on the tropical island

of Hainan. The brisk tour passes beneath

an enormous poster ofXi Jinping, China’s

president, then disgorges passengers for

photographs not far from a skeletal launch

tower. Back at the visitor centre there is a

small exhibition featuring space suits, a

model moon-rover and the charred husk

of a re-entry capsule that brought Chinese

astronauts back from orbit. A gift shop at

the exit sellsplastic rockets, branded bottle

openers and cuddlyalien mascots.

The base in a township of Wenchang

city is the newest of China’s four space-

launch facilities. It is also by far the easiest

to visit—thanks in part to the enthusiasm

of officials in Hainan, a haven for tourists

and rich retirees. Wenchang’s local govern-

ment hasadopted a logo for the city remi-

niscent of Starfleet badges in “Star Trek”. It

is building a space-themed tourist village

near the launch site, with attractions that

include a field of vegetables grown from

seeds that have been carried in spaceships.

If the dream is to turn this palm-fringed

corner of Hainan into a tourist trap compa-

rable to Florida’s balmy space coast, there

is still a lot to do. Several idle building sites

suggest thatsome investors have gambled

rashly. Signs have been taken down from a

patch of scrub that was once earmarked for

an amusement centre. On a recent week-

day, pensioners wintering nearby were

tonnes into low orbit, roughly double the

maximum load of China’s next most pow-

erful rocket. This is only a bit less than the

biggest rocket currently used by America’s

space agency, NASA, can carry—but far less

than the Falcon Heavy, a behemoth being

developed by SpaceX, a private American

firm (see page 66). The Long March 5’s

maiden launch, in 2016, was a success. But

the second one last summer failed a few

minutes after lift-off. Wenchang’s two

launch pads have stood empty ever since.

That failure, and another one last year

involving another type of Long March

rocket, slowed China’s space efforts. Offi-

cials had hoped to launch around 30 rock-

ets of one type or another in 2017 but only

managed 18 (there were 29 launches in

America and another 20 of Russian ones—

see chart). But they promise to bounce

back in 2018, with 40-or-so lift-offs planned

this year. These will probably include a

third outing for the Long March 5—assum-

ing its flaws can be fixed in time—and mis-

sions that will greatly expand the number

of satellites serving BeiDou, China’s home-

grown satellite navigation system.

The next two years could see big pro-

gress in China’s two highest-profile civil

programmes in space: lunar exploration

and building a space station. In 2013 China

sent a rover to the moon’s surface, the first

soft landing there since Russia and Ameri-

ca discontinued such efforts in the 1970s.

Towards the end of this year China hopes

to put a robot on the far side of the moon, a

region never yet explored from the lunar

surface. That landing will help prepara-

tions for an attempt—tentatively planned

for 2019—to collect rocks from the surface

and return them to Earth.

China talks of launching the main mod-

ule of a permanent space station as soon as

2019, and expanding it with two bolt-ons

early in the following decade. It is going it

among the few visitors to the launch site. A

local says that people often come out feel-

ing like they have had a lesson in patrio-

tism, but not much fun.

Perhaps this will change when Wen-

chang gets up to speed. The base is crucial

to China’s extraterrestrial ambitions be-

cause it is the only site from which it can

launch its latest and largest rocket, the Long

March 5 (pictured). Narrow railway tun-

nels limit the size ofthe components that

can be delivered to the three other bases.

Rockets are anyway more efficient the clos-

er they are launched to the equator, where

the faster rotation of Earth provides extra

lift. Of China’s launch centres, Wenchang

is by far the nearest to that sweet spot.

The Long March 5 can carry about 25

Space launches

Hainan aims high

WENCHANG

China’s ambitions in space are growing. America is keeping its distance

China

Also in this section

28 The party and #MeToo

29 Banyan: Taiwan, tormented and torn

Filling the void

*Including Europe,

Japan and India

Sources: Spacecraft Encyclopedia;

spaceflight101.com

Spacecraft launched by space agencies per year

By country

0

50

150

100

200

1957 70 80 90 2000 10 17

United States USSR/Russia China Other*