China Begins Work On New Launch Site

China on Monday started construction on its newest space center on Hainan island.

The Wenchang Space Satellite Launch Center will be the nation’s fourth launch base and its first coastal space center.

The launch center should be completed by 2013, according to reports from the Hainan Daily.

According to AFP, Chang Wanquan, of the Central Military Commission, and Chen Qiufa, head of the State Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, were in attendance at the center’s groundbreaking.

China’s space program is operated by its military.

The center is being constructed near the equator in order to save fuel on future satellite launches.

The AP reports that rockets launched from the Wenchang center would be able to lift about 14 percent more than those launched from Jiuquan.

The site has been developed in order to coincide with the launch of the Long March CZ-5 carrier rocket, which will liftoff in 2014.

China sent its first astronaut, or “taikonaut”, into space in 2003, becoming the third nation on the globe to successfully send a manned mission into space.

Last year, the nation announced the completion of its first-ever spacewalk during a mission on the Shenzhou spacecraft.