The satellite center, often referred to as China's Cape Canaveral, is located on the edge of the Gobi desert, a tiny dot of human habitation surrounded by brown, featureless terrain.

First to come into view is the 105-meter (346-foot) launch tower, Jiuquan's most recognizable feature known to about one billion Chinese who were glued to their television sets during China's first manned space launch in 2003.

Connected to the tower by a 1.5-kilometer (0.9-mile) rail is an 89-meter-tall (293-feet) building designed for check-ups of the Long March series of rockets, the work horses of China's space program.

This is the South Launch Site, which has risen from the desert sand in less than a decade to serve China's endeavor to send men, and perhaps soon also women, into space.

As visitors enter the gates, they encounter a futuristic-looking cityscape with orange and pale blue buildings and the street names "Space Road" and "Aeronautics South Avenue" before they are taken to the East Wing Guesthouse where food is served, astronaut-style, on aluminum trays.

Unlike Cape Canaveral, there are no beaches within a 2,000-kilometer (1,241-mile) radius, and to make up for that, planners have been forced to think of other ways to make life tolerable for the 15,000 people living here.

"We've got three schools, a movie theater, a post office, a hospital," said an official during an earlier visit arranged for foreign journalists.

"We've even got a fastfood restaurant serving fried chicken, although I don't fancy it so much."

In short, all the amenities of a moderate-sized town were available for the astronauts that are expected to be launched into orbit on Thursday, weather permitting.

All the facilities that China allows outsiders to look at are at the South Launch Center.

A higher level of secrecy rules at the North Launch Site, which played a key role at the height of the Cold War, and probably continues to do so in China's planning for the strategic challenges of the future.

In 1963, only months after the Cuban missile crisis, US intelligence analysts got one more worry added to their list of concerns when they studied satellite images from the North Launch Site.

The images showed discoloration of the launch pads, suggesting the site had become operational, and since then it has never ceased its research and development of ballistic missile technology.

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