Xichang Satellite Launch Center (西昌卫星发射中心)

Xichang Satellite Launch Center (西昌卫星发射中心, XSLC) is China's primary launch site for satellites and probes bound for geostationary orbit and for lunar and deep-space missions, located in Mianning County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in south-central Sichuan Province, about 60 kilometers northwest of the city of Xichang.^{1 • 2} Established in December 1970 and completed in 1983, it conducted its first launch on April 8, 1984, and has since become the Chinese launch center with the greatest launch capacity, the highest number of launches, and the highest launch density.^{2 • 3}

Location and layout

The center sits in a mountain valley in Mianning County, chosen in part because its latitude in southern Sichuan is favorable for launching satellites into geostationary orbit, a task for which the older Jiuquan center in the northwest was considered unsuitable.⁹ The State Council and Central Military Commission decided in December 1970 to build the new site near Xichang, and construction was completed in 1983.⁹

The facility consists of four major areas connected by roads and railways: the launch area with its pads and fueling facilities in the northwest, the technical center for launcher and payload processing in the southwest, the Mission Command and Control Center in the southeast, and a residential area in the middle.¹⁰ Launch vehicle stages arrive by a dedicated railway line, while satellite payloads are flown to Xichang Airport, whose 3,600-meter runway accepts large cargo aircraft, and then moved by road to the technical area.¹¹

Early history and first launches

The idea of a dedicated launch site in southern China arose in the late 1960s, when worsening relations with the Soviet Union raised concerns about the safety of the existing facility at Jiuquan, only several hundred kilometers from the northern border. After surveying 81 sites across 9 provinces, planners selected a mountain valley called Songlin near Xichang; construction began in the winter of 1970 under the code name "Project 7210," with some facilities, including propellant storage, built underground or in mountain caves for survivability.¹¹

First launches. On January 29, 1984, the first Long March 3 launch from Xichang failed when its third stage did not ignite, stranding the experimental communications satellite in low Earth orbit. The second attempt, on April 8, 1984, succeeded, placing China's first experimental geostationary communications satellite, Dongfanghong-2, into orbit.^{12 • 7} Launch Complex 3 (Pad 3) had become operational in 1983; Launch Complex 2 was added in 1990 to support heavier vehicles, first used by a Long March 2E on July 16, 1990.¹¹

Commercial launches and the 1996 disaster

Xichang was declassified in 1984 and throughout the 1990s provided commercial launch services for foreign customers. On April 7, 1990, a Long March 3 rocket carried the US-built Asiasat 1 communications satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, the first commercial launch by a Long March rocket.^{5 • 12} The market opened after NASA banned commercial payloads from the space shuttle following the 1986 Challenger accident, and Chinese prices were roughly half the cost of a European Ariane launch.¹³

The Intelsat 708 accident. On February 15, 1996, the maiden flight of the Long March 3B, carrying the US-built Intelsat 708 satellite, veered off course seconds after liftoff and crashed into a hillside near the launch center, destroying the rocket and its payload, valued at US$125 million.^{11 • 14} The official death toll was six, with 57 injured and more than 80 buildings destroyed in a nearby village.¹¹ The rocket flew only about 22 seconds, and the explosion was estimated at the equivalent of roughly 20 to 55 tons of TNT.¹⁴ The failure investigation, reviewed by an Independent Review Committee of Western engineers chaired by Loral executive Wah Lim, later became the subject of US export-control proceedings.¹⁴ After the disaster, the Bayi village near the pad was relocated eight kilometers away, and from 1998 all villagers were asked to leave a 2.5-kilometer circle around the launch site during launches.¹⁰

Notable missions

Xichang has hosted many of China's signature space missions. In January 2007, a rocket launched from Xichang used a kinetic kill vehicle payload to destroy the retired Fengyun 1C weather satellite in orbit, China's first anti-satellite weapon test.¹¹ Two lunar orbiters, Chang'e-1 in 2007 and Chang'e-2 in 2010, lifted off from Xichang.¹⁰ The Chang'e-4 probe, launched from Xichang on December 8, 2018, achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon.¹⁵ Most Beidou navigation satellites have launched from Xichang, including the final BeiDou-3 global-networking satellite in June 2020, completing China's independent global navigation constellation.^{3 • 6}

More recent missions include the French-Chinese SVOM gamma-ray-burst observatory on a Long March 2C on June 22, 2024,¹⁶ and the Tianwen-2 asteroid sample-return probe, launched on a Long March 3B on May 29, 2025 toward the asteroid 2016HO3.¹⁷ On May 30, 2020, a Long March 11 solid-fuel rocket launched two satellites from Xichang, the center's first solid-rocket mission, a capability intended to support rapid network replenishment and emergency launches after natural disasters or other sudden events.³

Launch tempo and records

Xichang is the Chinese launch center that has launched the most Long March rockets. The 100th, 300th, and 500th flights of the Long March series all lifted off from Xichang, the 500th being the Long March 2D launch of the Yaogan-39 satellite on December 10, 2023.⁷ By 2020 the center had carried out more than 150 launches since 1984, and launches since 2016 accounted for about 38 percent of all launches in the center's first 50 years and about 43 percent of China's launches in the same period.³ In 2023 the Xichang pad complex was approaching its 200th launch, on course to be the Chinese launch site to reach that mark in the shortest time.⁷

Safety and falling debris

Because Xichang is an inland site surrounded by populated villages, launch failures there carry high ground risk; the 1996 Intelsat 708 crash highlighted the hazards of launching from an inland site with populated areas nearby.¹¹ The same geography affects routine launches: spent boosters and payload fairings from Long March 3B flights from Xichang fall downrange, and the Philippine Space Agency regularly issues public advisories on estimated debris drop zones near Philippine territory and its exclusive economic zone based on notices issued by China's civil aviation authority.¹⁸ The newer Wenchang launch center on Hainan Island, built partly to limit landfall of rocket debris and to gain payload capacity from its location closer to the equator, is expected to take over some missions, with launch activity from Xichang projected to wind down gradually.^{4 • 11}

References

1. China's Ground Segment: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China Aerospace Studies Institute (Air University)
2. 中国的航天发射中心, CNSA (2013)
3. 西昌卫星发射中心首次成功发射固体运载火箭, CNSA/Xinhua (2020)
4. China's launch sites and Wenchang comparison, US Government Publishing Office
5. 中国航天史上的第一, CNSA
6. Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Orbit Codex
7. 第500次发射！西昌卫星发射中心见证中国航天新纪录, CNSA/Xinhua (2023)
8. USCC China Space Program Report (April 2012)
9. The Lessons of History, ETH Zurich collection
10. Mist around the CZ-3B disaster (part 2), The Space Review
11. Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, China Space Report
12. CZ-3 launch chronology, Encyclopedia Astronautica (fplib.org mirror)
13. Disaster at Xichang, Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine (2013)
14. US National Security and the PRC, Chapter 6 (Cox Report), govinfo
15. Xi meets Chang'e-4 mission representatives, CNSA
16. Xichang Space Center showcases China's cosmic ambitions, Le Monde (2024)
17. 长三乙火箭成功发射天问二号探测器, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (2025)
18. Public advisory on estimated debris drop zones from Long March 3B launch, Philippine Space Agency

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 19, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 15, 2026

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