The State Council of China has greenlighted the construction of a new space launch center in the southern island province of Hainan and the project has been kicked off, said a top provincial official on Thursday.

The launch center, the fourth in China, is expected to complete in five years, Wei Liucheng, Secretary of Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), told Xinhua on the sideline of the annual full session the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature.

The center, occupying an area of 17,000 mu (1,133 hectares), will be used to launch geostationary satellites, deep-space exploration satellites and polar orbit satellites.

The new space launch center is constructed for the sustainable development of China's areospace cause and is designed to meet the demand of launching innoxious and pollution-free carrier rockets.

Wei also announced that a theme park is planned to be built near the launch center and may be built synchronously with the space launch center.

The theme park, dubbed as the first-ever one in Asia with the theme of areospace, will exhibit rockets and model rockets and provide opportunities for visitors to experience zero gravity.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2008)