Why did the satellite launch base choose Jiuquan?

Because the satellite launch site is actually an intercontinental missile launch base, it is geographically required to be not easily destroyed by the enemy, far away from densely populated areas such as big cities, and preferably within the strategic depth of China. The second reason for the choice is that it must be in a sparsely populated area. The rocket launch may or may not be successful. It is necessary to ensure that the scattered rockets will not hurt people on the ground when they fall after the launch failure. The third is to choose open terrain. Therefore, Jiuquan is a good place.

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the quality of launching satellites, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center has been unable to meet the needs. First, for transportation reasons, high-quality satellites must choose rockets with large mass and large diameter. But now the diameter of the Long March II has reached about 3.3 meters. After it is completed in Shanghai, it will be transported to Jiuquan by train. Because trains need to go through mountains and make holes, the diameters of dozens of tunnels are fixed, and only rockets with a diameter of about 3.5 meters can be used.

The second reason is location. Because the latitude of Jiuquan is relatively high, the linear velocity of the earth's rotation on the surface is relatively small, and the speed superposition of the linear velocity of the earth's rotation cannot be fully utilized, so the quality of satellites that can be launched is also limited to some extent. If you choose high latitude areas, the above problems will be well solved.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center-"China Aerospace First Port", also known as "Dongfeng Aerospace City", is one of the launch test bases for scientific satellites, technical test satellites and launch vehicles in China, the earliest and largest comprehensive missile and satellite launch center established in China, and the only manned space launch site in China at present.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is located in the Gobi Desert in the northwest of Gansu Province, where the terrain is flat, the vision is wide, there is no rain all the year round, the lighting time is long, and there are few people around.