How much do you know about the Chinese Space Program? They will have a military space station orbiting the planet and a large launch facility known as the Wenchang Launch Center. They even have their own Facebook Page!
While Russia works to bring both the Angara and the Vostochny Cosmodrome into full service, China announced that it has completed the first stage of construction on its new launch facilities at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center.
Located on Hainan Island, a popular tourist destination, Wenchang will be used to launch China's own heavy rocket, the Long March 5, which will fly for the first time next year, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily.
China is set to launch a robotic moon mission this week, a "trial by fire" test of re-entry technology for the country's future lunar sample-return efforts.
To date there has been little official word on this unmanned mission, which may launch as early as Thursday (Oct. 23). It will apparently send a spacecraft around the moon; on its way back toward Earth, the probe will release a capsule to perform a high-speed plunge through the planet's atmosphere. The capsule will parachute onto terra firma to complete its voyage.