HELSINKI — China will establish a commercial spaceport in the coming years to support the rapid growth of private space activities in the country.
The commercial space launch center was included in a list of national projects in the recently formulated 14th Five-Year Plan which covers 2021-2025.
The project gains approval following both a large increase in launches by the traditional space industry in China and the development of a private space sector in recent years.
China currently has four national launch centers that mainly support launches of Long March rockets from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the state’s main space contractor. Increasing launch activity and numbers of launch service providers could however be constrained by a bottleneck in launch facilities.
Dou Xiaoyu, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top Chinese legislative body, and a vice chairperson at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC), a giant state-owned enterprise, called for a Chinese commercial spaceport project in order to meet an expected surge in demand for space launch services.
spacenews.com/china-to-construct-commercial-spaceport-to-support-booming-space-industry/