The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, from where China鈥檚 Shenzhou VI spacecraft will launch, resembles man鈥檚 quest for space 鈥� an effort to sustain humans in a big void where life was not meant to exist.
The satellite centre is located on the edge of the Gobi desert, a tiny dot of human habitation surrounded by brown, featureless terrain. This is the South Launch Site, which has risen from the desert sand in less than a decade to serve China鈥檚 endeavour to send men, and perhaps soon also women, into space.
Rising above the desolate surroundings is a 105-metre launch tower, which became the centre鈥檚 most recognisable feature when about one billion Chinese watched China鈥檚 first manned space launch on television in 2003.
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Connected to the tower by a 1.5-kilometre rail is another tall building designed for inspections of the Long March series of rockets 鈥� the workhorses of China鈥檚 space programme.
MORE: Read about the latest launch, China鈥檚 50-year-long space programme and Shenzhou, the 鈥渄ivine ship鈥�.
Orange and pale blue buildings make up the futuristic-looking cityscape inside the site鈥檚 gates, and visitors travel down streets with names like 鈥淪pace Road鈥� before they are taken to the East Wing Guesthouse, where food is served astronaut-style on aluminium trays.
Unlike NASA鈥檚 launch centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, there are no beaches within a 2000-kilometre radius. So planners have thought of other ways to make life tolerable for the 15,000 people living at the centre.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got three schools, a movie theatre, a post office, a hospital,鈥� said an official during an earlier visit arranged for foreign journalists. 鈥淲e鈥檝e even got a fast-food restaurant serving fried chicken, although I don鈥檛 fancy it so much.鈥�
All the facilities that China allows outsiders to look at are at the South Launch Center. A higher level of secrecy rules at the North Launch Site, which played a key role at the height of the Cold War, and probably continues to do so.
