Spaceport's milestone a major boost for Hainan space industry

China's primary spaceport for heavy-lift missions set a new annual launch record in 2025, highlighting the country's rapidly advancing high-density launch capabilities and the parallel rise of a commercial space ecosystem.

The Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan province conducted its 12th launch of 2025 on Dec 31, using a Long March 7A rocket to send the Shijian 29A and 29B satellites into their preset orbit.

This milestone followed another one reached on Nov 30, when the launch of a modified Long March 7 rocket marked the first time the site's annual launch tally had reached double digits. Since its inaugural mission in 2016,Wenchang has executed 45 launches, with the rate steadily growing.

The site, China's first independently designed green, modern spaceport, operates two all-weather launchpads specializing in medium and large cryogenic-liquid rockets. Officials attribute the increased launch rate to optimized efficiency, achieved primarily by slashing rocket testing cycles on the launchpads.

"Shortening the rocket's on-pad occupation time is critical," said Wang Yuliang, a site official.

The launch cycle for the 2017 Tianzhou 1 mission was roughly 40 days. It was streamlined to more than 30 days for the 2021 Tianzhou 2 launch and cut to about 20 days for Tianzhou 4 in 2022, which also pioneered simultaneous loading of liquid oxygen and kerosene.

Technicians achieved this through innovations in the process, merging tasks, eliminating redundancies and simplifying installations.

Between missions, they also upgraded and maintained equipment to ensure reliability. Propellant handling efficiency has tripled by adding tankers and enabling parallel transfer operations, according to commander Fu Yihang.

Experts said these refinements are key for Wenchang's future role in national projects like crewed moon landings and deep-space exploration, which will demand higher launch rates.