Build spaceflight launch towers for 50 years

　　　　Spaceflight launch towers at Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, Xichang and Taiyuan, have recorded the innovative achievements of the General Installation Contingent of Special Engineering Technology of the PLA General Armament Department. From the Dongfanghong I satellite to Shenzhou spacecraft, every progress made by the Chinese spaceflight industry has been imprinted with the mark of their tireless pursuit. Today the PLA General Armament Department held a meeting in Beijing in celebration of second-class collective merit awarded to the General Installation Contingent by the Central Military Commission.

　　The tower that launched the Dongfanghong I, China 's first man-made satellite, still stood tall and upright at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the depth of Gobi. Built by officers and men of the General Installation Contingent of Special Engineering Technology with their bare shoulders and hands, the launch station had undertaken China's first spaceflight launch task. And manned spaceflight launch tower in Gobi has successfully sent four Shenzhou spacecrafts into the space. It is China's first largest modern launch center with the most complex system and high technology, which was installed by the General Installation Contingent of Special Engineering Technology. To build large carrier rocket launch tower, they solved the problem of building a huge steel-structured launch tower under complex geological conditions, making an outstanding contributions to China's commercial launching of satellites for foreign countries. The technique of pouring fireproof concrete into guiding slot has been a knotty technical problem that stood in the way for the quality construction of launch center for a long time. It was the technicians of the General Installation Contingent of Special Engineering Technology, who created fireproof concrete spray technology, and the launch station they built had stood the tests of satellite and rocket launching experiments.

　　Over the past 50 years, the officers and men of the General Installation Contingent of Special Engineering Technology have constructed satellite launch stations, spacecraft launch stations, and carrier rocket launch stations, construction of over 100 large-scale national defense engineering project and installation of special equipment, making a special contribution to the development of China's spaceflight industry and national defense technology.

　　By Liu Bing and Fan Juwei

　　(July 9, PLA Daily)