Chinese company based in Hong Kong signs deal to build spaceport in Djibouti, Africa
Djibouti’s location is indicated in black.
The government of Djibouti, one of the smallest nations in Africa and located at the southern end of the Red Sea, has signed an agreement with a pseudo Chinese company, the Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, to build a major spaceport there.
According to the translated press release, the five year project will cost one billion dollars, include a lease for 30 years, and involve the construction of a port, highway, and electrical power distribution system.
As much as Hong Kong for more than two centuries has been a haven for private enterprise, it is now under the control of the communist Chinese, and they would not allow anyone from Hong Kong to make such a deal unless they were in full control.
Based on the map, there is almost no launch path out of Djibouti that will not cross another nation’s territory. Unless the Chinese plan to make all the first stages launched from this site reusable, they are going to dropping stages on a lot of people’s heads, without their permission. And they will be doing it to some places where war is often and continues to be the most frequently used negotiating tactic.
Hat tip to stringer Jay.
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Djibouti’s location is indicated in black.
The government of Djibouti, one of the smallest nations in Africa and located at the southern end of the Red Sea, has signed an agreement with a pseudo Chinese company, the Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, to build a major spaceport there.
According to the translated press release, the five year project will cost one billion dollars, include a lease for 30 years, and involve the construction of a port, highway, and electrical power distribution system.
As much as Hong Kong for more than two centuries has been a haven for private enterprise, it is now under the control of the communist Chinese, and they would not allow anyone from Hong Kong to make such a deal unless they were in full control.
Based on the map, there is almost no launch path out of Djibouti that will not cross another nation’s territory. Unless the Chinese plan to make all the first stages launched from this site reusable, they are going to dropping stages on a lot of people’s heads, without their permission. And they will be doing it to some places where war is often and continues to be the most frequently used negotiating tactic.
Hat tip to stringer Jay.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Checking further, in Djibouti, the first overseas military base operated by China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy was built at a cost of US$590 million. I am willing to bet that the launch port will be right next to the naval base.
There is also the Maritime Silk Road, where China has a ten year lease of a port, it is a subset of the Belt and Road Initiative . The Chinese are investing heavily into that area.
I first heard the word Djibouti on John Batchelor while looking for a new radio station long ago, I had no idea what a Djibouti was, or that it was a place – and after listening to Mr Batchelor, what an important place it was. I was hooked.
At that time I believe that our Foreign Affairs failures in Djibouti were in the early Obama years (with Antony Blinken at the deputy National Security post). I agree with Jay that the PRC PLA built a base in Djibouti. A vet I met at one time told me the walls around the base are easily 10 feet.
Djibouti is one of the key nations the US has ignored through the years. It is located nicely at a closing point of the Red Sea and sees all of the shipping the Suez Canal sees, as seen on the map above. Now with a space port, it also has an over water ~2000mile flight to the Indian shore (Mumbai).
DOD has had a staging and supply facility there for years. During my time in Iraq, KBR operated the facility. Im not sure who operates it now.
But why? Why build a space port a quarter of the world away in the third world?
This is the way the godless Chicom commies enslave people. They loan at ridiculous rates 3rd world countries billions for “infrastructure” projects with the 3rd world country’s natural resources as collateral. When the 3rd world country can’t pay (usually when the thug dictator’s flee to Monaco with all the loot) China seizes their natural resources.
The godless Chicom commies use substandard materials that start falling apart after a couple years.
Also I’ve noticed the successful companies:
1. Build a rocket
2. Build a spaceport for their rocket
The unsuccessful companies
1. Build a spaceport
2. Have great ideas for building rockets
3. The spaceport sits vacant and weeds grow in cracks in the concrete
It looks like a great place to defend access to the whole of the gulf sea.
With their ally Iran directly across from them they would control everything going in and out and have a willing ally that would do the dirty work of armed enforcement.
China does not plan on launching anything more than an old solid fuel military rocket with a small “experimental” orbital payload.
This all about expanding a military base and they will use any excuse to ad more military defenses to the new base.
Sorry I was all wrong on location.
But the defensive points still stand.
Oongawa Astra
Red China has now moved into first place in the race to place the World’s non Developed 170+ countries (top 23 OECD Nations) into heavy debt….beyond The World Bank and IMF,