As summer vacation begins, many families are flocking to Hai Duong city (Shandong, China) to witness offshore missile launches, an experience once exclusively for professionals.
According to Xinhua, the Oriental Spaceport in Hai Duong is currently China's only commercial offshore launch site. Since 2019, it has conducted 25 launches, putting 155 satellites into orbit.
Each rocket launch event attracts a large number of tourists, turning the coastal city famous for its golden sandy beaches into a new destination for space science lovers.
Not only watching the launches, visitors can also visit the 6 km long Space Avenue, the Space Science Museum and modern aerospace industrial parks.
Hai Duong's space museum is 12,000 m2 wide with more than 60 interactive display areas, applying virtual reality and augmented reality technology to help children access aerospace knowledge visually. Each year, it welcomes about 100,000 visitors.
Experiential programs such as making missile models, simulating satellite launches or visiting production lines are also chosen by many families during the summer.
The development of space tourism is bringing clear economic benefits to the locality. During missile launches, hotels and restaurants are often fully booked, strongly promoting service and trade activities.
Behind the attraction of tourism is a large-scale space industrial ecosystem. In the past 7 years, Hai Duong has attracted 32 aerospace projects and many large enterprises such as Orienspace and Galactic Energy.
The Shandong provincial government aims to build a space industry worth 50 billion yuan by 2027, with the capacity to produce 100 rockets and 150 satellites per year.
In the future, Hai Duong plans to develop more space-themed parks, spacecraft cabin simulation hotels and science festivals for the public, continuing to make space tourism a new and potential economic sector.
