Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center (), formerly known as Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center (; BACCC or BACC), is a command center for the

Chinese space program The space program of the People's Republic of China is directed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China's space program has overseen the development and launch of ballistic missiles, thousands of artificial satellites, mann ...

which includes the Shenzhou missions, and is located in a suburb northwest of Beijing under the administration of

Haidian District Haidian District () is a district of the municipality of Beijing. It is mostly situated in northwestern Beijing, but also to a lesser extent in the west, where it has borders with Xicheng District and Fengtai District. It is 431 square km in a ...

. The space center main entrance is located at the intersection of Beiqing Road and You Yi Road as shown by the photograph.Personal visit October 5, 2016. Image:Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center Entrance.jpg, BACC Main Entrance The space center is supervised and managed by the government of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. BACC's primary functions include supervision, telemetry, tracking and command of spacecraft. The building is inside a complex nicknamed Aerospace City. It was initially created for China's crewed space missions, a.k.a. "Project 921", hence also the name "921" among some insiders. It has evolved to be responsible for the

Chang'e 1 Chang'e 1 (; ) was an unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft, part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. The spacecraft was named after the Chinese Moon goddess, Chang'e. Chang'e 1 was launched on 24 October 2007 at 1 ...

mission and the Sino-Russian Interplanetary Space Mission,

Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mis ...

. The BACC also oversees Shenzhou missions with the help of four

Yuan Wang-class tracking ship The Yuan Wang-class of tracking ships () are used for tracking and support of satellite and intercontinental ballistic missiles by the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is important to n ...

s. It has dedicated subsidiaries for

SINOSAT Sino Satellite Communications Co., Ltd. known also as SinoSat is a Chinese company. It provided satellite communications through a pair of communications satellites in geostationary orbit. Their two satellites were, SinoSat 1 and SinoSat 3. A ...

and Inmarsat. It was renamed to 北京航天飞行控制中心 (literally: Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center) in 2006. As of March, 2009, no official announcement has been made to revise its formal name in English in accordance with its new Chinese name.

References

Chinese space program facilities {{space-stub

See also

References