AFTER decades hiding deep in China’s interior, the country’s space-launch programme is preparing to go a bit more public. By the tourist town of Wenchang on the coast of the tropical island of Hainan, work is nearly complete on China’s fourth and most advanced launch facility. Tall new towers are visible from the road. Secrecy remains ingrained—soldiers at a gate politely but firmly decline to say what they are guarding. Visitors, they say, are prohibited. But nearby there are plans to build a space-themed amusement park. China is beginning to see new moneymaking opportunities in space. The decision to build the base on Hainan was made for technical reasons: its proximity to the equator, at a latitude of 19 degrees north, will allow rockets to take better advantage of the kick from the Earth’s rotation than is currently possible with launches from China’s other bases (see map), which were built far inland at a time of cold-war insecurity. That will allow a bigger payload for each unit of fuel—a boon for China’s space ambitions, which include taking a bigger share of the commercial satellite-launch market, putting an unmanned rover on Mars around 2020, completing a manned space station around 2022 and possibly putting a person on the moon in the coming decade, too. By 2030 China hopes to test what could be one of the world’s highest-capacity rockets, the Long March 9.

Wenchang’s location has other advantages. With only ocean to the east, there is less risk of a tragedy like the one that occurred in 1996 at the launch base in Xichang, in the south-western province of Sichuan, when a failed rocket carrying an American satellite slammed into a nearby village. China acknowledged six deaths but Western witnesses said houses within several hundred metres were levelled and the death toll may well have been higher.

The seaside location will also help with the delivery of large rockets to the base. Jiao Weixin of Peking University says that rockets or their parts that are transported by road or rail can be no wider than the widest tunnel. “Now we can ship by sea and it doesn’t matter how big they are,” says Mr Jiao.

Building in such a tourist hot-spot has involved a huge change of mindset for China’s space programme, which is run by the army. The base at Xichang has allowed tourists to visit, but trips are not heavily promoted—least of all to foreigners. In Wenchang the many hotel projects under construction near the launch centre suggest a different approach. Mr Jiao says the new base’s high profile will help China do a better job of cultivating public support for its space efforts.