What is Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center like?

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, also known as "Dongfeng Space City", is one of the launch test bases of China's scientific satellites, technical test satellites and launch vehicles, the earliest and largest comprehensive missile and satellite launch center established in China, and the only manned space launch site in China at present. It is located in the depths of the deserted Badain Jaran Desert, more than 200 kilometers away from the nearest Jiuquan City. At that time, it was named "Jiuquan" because missile satellite launch sites in various countries avoided using real addresses at that time, and because the launch site was located in the desert Gobi, it was difficult to choose a well-known place name, and Jiuquan was the closest to the launch center and was a famous city in history.

Construction of Jiuquan base began.

1958 In March, a military train stopped at Xin 'anzhou Station in North Korea. There has just been a heavy snow in the local area, and the weather is still gloomy, with no sign of clearing up.

As usual, there were few people at the station, and a group of gray sparrows flew overhead and turned back, making this area more deserted.

The train started, the speed gradually accelerated, and the rapidly rotating wheels were wrapped in a snowflake and rushed to the other side of the Yalu River.

Sun Jixian, acting commander of the 20th Volunteer Army, and several of his entourage were sitting in the middle carriage. The fat cotton uniforms wrapped around them make them look a little bloated.

Just a day ago, Yong Yang, commander of the Volunteers, informed Sun Jixian to return home from North Korea immediately. Sun Jixian asked him what he was doing at home. Yong Yang said that he didn't know, only that it was the name of the Military Commission, and asked him to go to Xiao Hua, deputy director of the General Political Department, after returning home.

After fighting for so many years, it was the first time for Sun Jixian to meet something that was unclear from the chief's instructions. He couldn't help wondering.

In Beijing, Sun Jixian didn't have a rest, so he hurried to the headquarters and reported to Xiaohua.

As soon as they met, Sun Jixian couldn't wait to ask, "Will there be another war?"

Xiao Hua smiled and replied, "There will be no war this time. But the task is not lighter than fighting. Your 20 th Corps will be transferred back soon. "

Sun Jixian habitually took out his notebook from his pocket, ready to write down the newly received tasks. When Xiaohua saw it, he waved at him and said, "Don't write it down in your notebook yet. Listen to me."

Xiao Hua paused, then said, "The Soviet Union brought more than 40 experts to help us build a missile test range, and we also need corresponding personnel to keep up. There are several types of missile experts, ground-to-ground, air-to-air, ground-to-air, shore-to-ship and ship-to-ship. The Central Military Commission decided to transfer troops to build a missile test range, and you will do it. "

In this way, Sun Jixian even officially took office.

In April of the same year, in order to speed up the construction of the launch site, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Aiping and others decided:

A certain regiment of the People's Liberation Army was deployed as the foundation of the launch site, and the "Special Engineering Command" with General Chen Shiju as the commander was established.

Therefore, the 19th and 20th Corps of China People's Liberation Army immediately selected elite soldiers and were ordered to go south through Shanhaiguan.

Soon, under the personal leadership of Chen Shiju, the commander of the army, the Corps of Engineers entered the northwest wasteland. Railway soldiers and special engineering troops have successively drawn troops out of the mountain and marched west day and night. The signatory countries and motor transport troops also rushed to the northwest to join forces from all directions.

At the same time, artillery academies in Xi, Chongqing, Shenyang and other places also urgently transferred elite personnel to Beijing for assembly. The industrial engineering university of the whole army has also been ordered to distribute leaflets to this construction army at any time.

To this end, the American spy agency, which has been tracking China's military movements, submitted an urgent report to the White House:

The 20th Corps of China Volunteers suddenly disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown!

Shortly thereafter, in the Gobi Desert, which has always been cold, dark green army tents suddenly rose overnight, and 65,438+10,000 officers and men quickly started China's journey from desert to space.

This is the Badain Jaran Desert at the foot of Qilian Mountain, which stretches for thousands of miles. This is an extremely mysterious place that has been repeatedly set foot in and described by countless orientals and westerners.

In this mysterious territory, there is a seemingly tiny city, Jiuquan.

According to legend, Huo Qubing, a title of generals in ancient times in the Western Han Dynasty, led troops to the Xiongnu and won a great victory. After the victory, he stationed troops in Hexi area. In order to reward his contribution, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sealed an altar of royal wine.

In order to celebrate the victory with the soldiers, Huo Qubing dumped the altar royal wine in the mountain spring, and then scooped up water wine to drink with everyone. Later, in order to commemorate Huo Qubing, the local people called this place "Jiuquan".

At that time, the natural conditions and living conditions faced by the construction army in the desert were extremely difficult.

It is recorded that:

On the vast sandy sea, there is almost nothing except a special railway built by engineers and a lonely expert guest house with bath and ballroom.

Tens of thousands of troops have difficulty in finding food, clothing, housing and transportation for a while, so military organs can only spend the night in the Lama Temple.

1960, the situation is even more severe. First, the Soviet Union withdrew all aid experts from China, and then natural disasters swept across the country followed.

At the launch site that has just started, all kinds of instruments and equipment have been abandoned in the indifferent sand sea, and the projects that need to be completed have been shelved. The project being tested was interrupted, and the main technical data and drawings of the missile were swept away by Soviet experts.

When some Soviet experts left, they also dropped the following sentence:

China will come back to buy your patent if it can make its own missiles.

Thus, camel thorn, Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves, wild vegetable balls, wowotou and salt water became the "rations" to maintain the life of this rocket unit.

Many people suffer from night blindness and edema due to lack of vegetables and serious water shortage. They dragged their swollen legs on the sand, and every step they took, every time they climbed onto the launcher, all they paid was sucking their own milk.

In addition, because the data and drawings have been taken away by Soviet experts, everything has to be explored from scratch by ourselves.

Researchers don't have electric computers, so they can only use hand-cranked computers 24 hours a day.

Some soldiers have loose bowels because of eating Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves, and they are working on the launcher with a height of tens of meters, so it is too late to go to the toilet. In order to hurry, they simply tied up their trouser legs with belts and let shit flow in their pants.

At the same time, due to confidentiality reasons, the identity and address of the construction troops are all replaced or hidden by "mailbox" and "number".

For example, they obviously live in Jiuquan area, but the mailing address is "Lanzhou XX mailbox" thousands of miles away. So that when many family members went to Lanzhou to find their sons or husbands, they searched all over Lanzhou and found no one.

And all the units are not called names, they are called "numbers". For example, the base office is called "10", the martyrs cemetery is called "9.5" and so on.

Even every forest, mound, pond and depression there has been replaced by various numbers.

As a result, the already boring life has become more and more boring after being linked by these boring codes.

Sandstorm engineers rush to build railways.

1958 One night in early summer, 6,300 railway soldiers were told the following confidentiality regulations:

Don't tell anyone where to go, don't tell anyone what to do, and don't write to your family to tell them your address and work.

Later, they were dragged out of the car by a military column at a small station called Qingshui in Lanzhou.

At the same time, hundreds of railway workers who are absolutely reliable politically and technically transferred from Lanzhou, Beijing, Jinan and other railway bureaus suddenly "disappeared" overnight and secretly came here to start the secret construction of the whole railway line.

You can imagine the difficulties and hardships of building a railway on the desolate Gobi desert. At that time, there was no one along the railway, no water, not even a green leaf.

A sudden black whirlwind can uproot a tent. At this time, in order to keep their nest, the railway soldiers had to lie on the ground and fight the sandstorm with their bodies and hands holding the rope together.

When eating, because the sandstorm is too big and it is in the open air, everyone has to gather together, pull up the skirts to block the sandstorm, let some people eat quickly, and then change some people.

Especially in winter, the temperature is generally 30-40 degrees below zero, and some locomotive attendants are so frozen that the sand in their eyes can stick into a string one centimeter long. But despite this, a year later, a railway extending to the launch site was paved.

Since then, the paved railway has communicated various contacts between the launch site and the outside world, and the railway line has become the lifeline and hope line of the base rocket soldiers.

In order to maintain the first and only base railway leading to the outside world, thousands of railway officers and soldiers and railway workers have weathered the storm and endured the cold. Ji Chuanxian is one of them.

Ji Chuanxian, an upright railway soldier. 1959 One day, the company commander talked to him and said, "You don't have to wear this military uniform. You should be a patrolman. Give you a gun, five bullets and a dog. Is that okay? "

Ji Chuanxian gave a military salute and said, "Good!" So he took off his military uniform, put on his railway uniform and started his patrol career.

From then on, all year round, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, he went out to patrol the road during the day and night, always taking the dog.

There is often a sudden gust of wind along the railway. At this time, he will hold the dog tightly in his arms, lie on the track, wait for the whirlwind to pass, then get up and shake off the sand on his body, head, ears and nostrils, and continue to patrol the road.

Sometimes when the wind and sand are too heavy and the weather is too cold, the dog will lie on the inside of the railway. No matter how you call it, it just won't go.

Therefore, Ji Chuanxian took out his own steamed bread from the only ration, broke off a small piece for the dog to eat, and then let the dog continue to patrol with him.

And Shi, who is also a policeman. Living in a tent for many years, he was surrounded by mosquitoes day and night.

You know, the mosquitoes in the Gobi desert are staggering. As someone said, 10 a mosquito can fry a dish. Once, after he was bitten by a mosquito, he felt itchy, so he scratched his skin with his hand and bled profusely, leading to septicemia.

Due to the lack of medical care and timely treatment in the Gobi Desert, at the age of 34, he left his wife and five children and lay on the railway line forever.

In order to raise five children, his wife first unloaded the car at the station and then worked as a garbage man in the garbage team. Later, she couldn't hold on any longer, so she left five children and followed her husband.

Meng Chuanfa,1May, 958, was the foreman who worked in the works section of aerospace railway. Because his "spot" is desolate and lonely, there is no doctor, and there is no second woman except a lover.

So when his wife gave birth to a child for the first time, he had to cut the umbilical cord with a rusty pair of scissors in a panic. Later, he had two more children, both of whom were born in an indigenous way.

On one occasion, he took three children back to his hometown of Dalian to visit relatives. Grandparents take them to the zoo to play. Who knows that all the animals in the zoo are called "camels"

After returning home, his grandparents asked him, "Why are these children so stupid that they call everything a camel?"? Are they out of their minds? "

Meng Chuanfa wiped his tears and said, "It's not that children are stupid. Instead, the children stayed in the Gobi for many years, where they had never seen anything except soldiers and camels. "

At the end of 1962, the commander was transferred from Jiuquan base, and Li Fuze became the second commander of the base.

Li Fuze, 19 14, a native of Yantai, Shandong. 16 years old, Li Fuze went to Peiping alone and began to attend middle school. 1935, went to Shanghai Daxia University to study economics.

When he graduated, he sent a telegram home, claiming that he needed funds to study abroad. His father immediately remitted him a considerable sum of money, but he ran to Yan 'an with it.

After the July 7th Lugouqiao Incident, he returned to his hometown in Shandong and started guerrilla warfare. From then on, Li Fuze became the head of a regiment of the Eighth Route Army in southern Shandong.

After the war of liberation began, Li Fuze went down to the four fields and served as the chief of staff in the Fourth Longitudinal 4 1 Army. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he went to Guangzhou and became the deputy chief of staff of the Guangzhou Military Region.

As early as the establishment of the first missile launching base in China, Sun Jixian, who was appointed as the commander of the base, began to arrange troops and named generals, and Li Fuze was the first one he named. Soon, Li Fuze was appointed as the deputy commander of Jiuquan Missile Launch Base. According to the division of labor of the base party Committee, he is responsible for receiving Soviet experts.

Whenever there is an opportunity on weekends or at ordinary times, Li Fuze always drinks with Soviet experts with bottles and peanuts.

When the other side was drunk and was called "drunk", they began to ask Soviet experts questions about missiles and missile launches.

Needless to say, confused Soviet experts always answer questions, and the answers are more generous and comprehensive than usual. Therefore, drinking has become his important mission and special work content.

But for the Soviet experts themselves, Li Fuze is absolutely sincere. Moreover, in order to take good care of the experts in life and spirit, he has racked his brains with good intentions.

For example, Soviet experts do not like frozen meat, but prefer fresh veal. So, he ran to the chief of staff, Luo Ruiqing, and asked for a plane captured from the battlefield, which was transported once a week from Lanzhou, Xi 'an, Beijing-Guangzhou and Hainan Island and sent to the expert restaurant.

For all the construction fighters in the base, Li Fuze devoted himself to love and care ten times.

As mentioned earlier, the base was in the most difficult time in the early 1960s. Due to lack of food, the soldiers had to go out to eat Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves.

After Li Fuze knew, his heart ached. He boarded the plane and flew to Beijing. He rushed into the home of Yang Chengwu, deputy chief of staff, and asked Yang Chengwu to find a way to solve the problem of food for the officers and men at the base.

Later, Yang Chengwu made a special report to Zhou Enlai, which partially solved the food problem.

At the end of 1966, while building a new launch site, Jiuquan base also accepted the tasks of overall design, equipment control, infrastructure and organization construction, management and use of satellite ground tracking observation station.

At the same time, the tasks of technicians from all systems and positions to study in scientific research institutes and counterpart factories across the country have all been rolled out.

But at this time, due to well-known reasons, Nie was hit, and the leading organs of the base were soon hit. In Li Fuze's words, there is a feeling of chaos and leaderlessness.

1967 65438+1On October 24th, the Central Military Commission issued a special instruction to Jiuquan Base on "No Big Four, Adhere to Positive Education".

Then, the Central Military Commission issued "Eight Orders on the Army" XXXXX "to the whole army.

As a result, the officers and men of the base and party member, the first class of the base, United as one, resisted all kinds of interference, maintained the stability and normal command of the troops, and maintained the normal order of the test tasks and various tasks.

1June, 967, in order to build the national measurement and control center and observation network, the sixth experimental department was established in the base. Qiao Ping, deputy chief of staff of the base, led a team to survey the designated points and started infrastructure construction one after another.

In order to meet the needs of fast, accurate, safe and confidential engineering communication and data transmission, with the approval of Li Fuchun, Vice Premier of the State Council, the first phase communication project of satellite measurement and control system headed by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was also completed as scheduled.

The project connects seven observation points of the satellite with the wired communication network of the central station, with a communication line of 3,663 kilometers.

Moreover, with the completion of satellite monitoring and control stations, the equipment installation and debugging of various systems in the base are also under intense progress.

At this point, Jiuquan launch base has begun to take shape. Among them, the most striking facility is Long Menta No.1, which is 55 meters high.

The total weight of Long Menta is 6.5438+0.4 million tons, and it can move slowly on the heavy rail connecting two stations. At the same time, another 37-meter-high fixed tower on the launch site is used to install and fix various gas and liquid pipelines and cables, which is called "Umbilical Tower".

In addition, an underground control room was built on the launch site, which is a hemispherical reinforced concrete structure with a depth of more than 10 meter.

This vault structure has a strong ability to withstand external pressure, even if the rocket explodes after takeoff, it can still ensure the safety of equipment and personnel in the underground control room.

Complete the first launch mission.

1969 March 18, Ren Xinmin, the chief engineer of Dongfeng-1 rocket, led a team to the launch site.

From April 8, the officers and men of the base and the test team of the Ministry of Space have worked together for more than 80 days.

Through this joint training, the cooperation between the rocket and the launch system is well completed, and it is also a good exercise for the launch commander and operator.

On August 27th, the first two-stage rocket used for expected flight test was erected on a 55-meter-high launcher.

At that time, the international situation was very tense, and the day when the rocket was just erected, it alarmed the United States and the Soviet Union. At the same time, Japan, which has been keeping a close eye on the launch of China's "Dongfanghong-1" satellite, is also highly nervous and has opened its eyes wide.

At the beginning of September, the rocket began to be electrified for vertical testing. However, the gyro instrument that was tested well before leaving the factory suddenly broke down. No matter how you check, you can't find the root of the problem.

Twenty days have passed in a blink of an eye, and the problem is still not found. Ren Xinmin had to report to Beijing, asking for a solution.

Late at night on September 26th, Qian Xuesen rushed to the launch site and personally watched the experiment of reproducing the fault in the vacuum box. Watching, Qian Xuesen suddenly smiled and said, "Comrades, you didn't hold your breath!"

It turned out that after the rocket test run, when strengthening the rigidity of the instrument, the designer made a mistake in his busy work and accidentally removed the "constant pressure valve" at the exit of the system.

Therefore, after the rocket reached a higher altitude, the gyro instrument failed naturally because the external air pressure was low and there was no throttle.

After the problem of gyro instrument was solved, the launch immediately turned to normal. Although dozens of missiles, large and small, have been launched before, they are still very nervous about this launch.

Because this is a two-stage rocket, if it is successfully launched, the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite can be officially launched, or there is a reliable premise for launching the satellite.

Moreover, judging from the technical preparation and the speed of work progress at that time, it is entirely possible for China to launch the first artificial satellite before Japan.

However, if the launch fails, the launch plan of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite will have to be postponed or even stopped. It is possible for Japan to launch the first artificial satellite before China.

1969165438+1October15th, that is, the first day of the launch. In order to be prudent, Zhou Enlai also specially took Ren Xinmin and several major designers back to Beijing by special plane from the launch site to listen to the report in the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

After listening to the report, Zhou Enlai inquired about the launch site and possible problems in detail, then squatted on the ground with the experts and carefully looked at the map of the navigation area.

Experts are not allowed to return to the launch site before the relevant information is clearly verified.

165438+1October 17: 45, when the second-stage rocket was launched, the program distributor of the second-stage rocket control system failed halfway, which led to the failure of this launch.

Since then, it is said that neighboring Japan was overjoyed when it learned the news of China's failure, and then pursued it crazily.

1970 65438+1On October 30th, the second two-stage rocket was erected on the launcher again. Whether the long-awaited "Dongfanghong-1" satellite can be launched next is the key.

At that time, it was in the cold winter, and the destroyer Xuefeng on the Gobi Desert stabbed people and was extremely cold, but all the people watching the launch were standing in the open air. Everyone's heart is firmly involved in the rocket that is about to take off.

At the command, the second-stage rocket roared. As the shocking sound of the engine faded away, the rocket flew higher and higher.

At this time, people are most worried about whether the two-stage rocket can be separated normally. Suddenly, a fireball broke out in the sky. After a few seconds, the clouds cleared and two black spots were clearly visible.

A moment later, there was good news from the landing site: "The two-stage rocket was separated successfully!" "The rocket hits the target with high precision!"

The launch was successful and everyone at the base was ecstatic. Because the long-awaited "Dongfanghong-1" satellite can finally be launched.

In February of the same year, the National Defense Science and Technology Commission officially issued a pre-order for the launch of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite to the base, and determined that the base was responsible for the unified command of the satellite launch test.

The leading group of the base immediately organized and formulated the test plan and procedures, and also issued instructions and task orders for security and confidentiality.

On February 4th, the "Long March 1" joint training rocket set off from Beijing assembly plant and arrived at the base a few days later. The launch of the satellite began to enter the preparatory stage.

1On April 24th, 970, China successfully launched the first artificial earth satellite, namely "Dongfanghong-1" satellite.

So far, China has become the fifth country to launch satellites after the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan.

Since then, Jiuquan base has successfully launched missile nuclear weapons and the first recoverable satellite, and has successively spawned space bases such as Taiyuan and Xichang, becoming a world-famous place in one fell swoop.