China is so big, why build a launch center in the desolate Jiuquan?

Because Jiuquan is flat and sparsely populated, it belongs to the inland desert climate. The annual average temperature is 8.7 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity is 35%-55%. It is dry and rainy all year round, with plenty of sunshine, small cloud cover, long sunshine time and many launch opportunities. The launch test can be carried out for about 300 days every year.

1958 Shortly after New Year's Day, according to the suggestion of Soviet experts, China will build a comprehensive shooting range for testing various missiles, including surface-to-surface missiles, air-to-air missiles, surface-to-air missiles, shore-to-ship missiles and ship-to-shore missiles. After visiting Northeast China and North China by plane, Chinese and Soviet experts found that mountainous and hilly areas were limited and decided to choose northwest China.

The launch site is the Gobi desert, with a vast area and open terrain. There is basically no human land within 200 kilometers, and there are no densely populated towns and important traffic arteries within 600 kilometers. It fully meets the space requirements of the waiting phase and the rising phase. It is also the most ideal launch and recovery landing site for the advanced transportation system between heaven and earth, with huge development space. The launch site can make full use of the TT&C network of land space basically formed thousands of kilometers away from Kashgar in the west and Minxi in the east. It can conveniently and accurately transmit telemetry and restore consciousness.

Over the past decades, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center has established a relatively complete set of comprehensive launch facilities and has a strong scientific and technological team. China's first surface-to-surface missile, the first missile nuclear weapon test, the first artificial earth satellite, the first recoverable satellite, the first long-range launch vehicle, China's first artificial satellite Dongfanghong-1, Shenzhou series spacecraft, Tiangong-1 target aircraft and Tiangong-2 space laboratory were all launched from Dongfeng Aerospace City. Shenzhou series 1 1 spacecraft, the re-entry flight tester for the third phase of lunar exploration, and China's first microgravity test satellite Shi Jian-10 all landed on the grassland in central Inner Mongolia. Generally, the middle and high latitudes are selected for launching manned satellites, so that the high payload can be launched to the maximum with low rocket kinetic energy. Generally, these areas are short of water and have good weather conditions, which are conducive to launch. Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center meets such conditions.