Chinese space program
The space program of the People's Republic of China is about the activities in outer space conducted and directed by the government of China. The roots of the Chinese space program trace back to the 1950s, when, with the help of the newly allied Soviet Union, China began development of its first ballistic missile and rocket programs in response to the perceived American threats. Driven by the successes of Soviet Sputnik 1 and American Explorer 1 satellite launches in 1957 and 1958 respectively, China would launch its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1 in April 1970 aboard a Long March 1 rocket, making it the fifth nation to place a satellite in orbit.
China has one of the most active space programs in the world. With space launch capability provided by the Long March rocket family and four spaceports within its border, China conducts either the highest or the second highest number of orbital launches each year. It operates a satellite fleet consisting of a large number of communications, navigation, remote sensing and scientific research satellites. The scope of its activities has expanded from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. China is one of the three countries, alongside the United States and Russia, with independent human spaceflight capability.
Currently, most of the space activities carried out by China are managed by the China National Space Administration and the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force, which directs the astronaut corps and the Chinese Deep Space Network. Major programs include China Manned Space Program, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Gaofen Observation and Planetary Exploration of China. In recent years, China has conducted several missions, including Chang'e-4, Chang'e-5, Chang’e-6, Tianwen-1, Tianwen-2, and Tiangong space station.
History
Early years (1950s to mid-1970s)
The Chinese space program began in the form of missile research in the 1950s. After its birth in 1949, the newly founded People's Republic of China was in pursuit of missile technology to build up the nation's defense for the Cold War. In 1955, Qian Xuesen, the world-class rocketry scientist, returned to China from the United States. In 1956, Qian submitted a proposal for the development of China's missile program, which was approved in just a few months. On October 8, China's first missile research institute, the Fifth Research Academy under the Ministry of National Defense, was established with less than 200 staff, most of which were recruited by Qian. The event was later recognized as the birth of China's space program.To fully utilize all available resources, China kick-started its missile development by manufacturing a licensed copy of two Soviet R-2 missiles, which were secretly shipped to China in December 1957 as part of the cooperative technology transfer program between the Soviet Union and China. The Chinese version of the missile was given the code name "1059" with the expectation of being launched in 1959. But the target date was soon postponed due to various difficulties arising from the sudden withdrawal of Soviet technical assistance due to the Sino-Soviet split. Meanwhile, China started constructing its first missile test site in the Gobi desert of Inner Mongolia, which later became the famous Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China's first spaceport.
After the launch of mankind's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, Mao Zedong decided during the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on May 17, 1958, to make China an equal of the superpowers, by adopting Project 581 with the objective of placing a satellite in orbit by 1959 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the PRC's founding. This goal was soon proven unrealistic, and it was decided to focus on the development of sounding rockets first.
The first achievement of the program was the launch of T-7M, a sounding rocket that eventually reached the height of 8 km on February 19, 1960. It was the first rocket developed by Chinese engineers. The success was praised by Mao Zedong as a good beginning of an indigenous Chinese rocket development. However, all Soviet technological assistance was abruptly withdrawn after the 1960 Sino-Soviet split, and Chinese scientists continued on the program with extremely limited resources and knowledge. It was under these harsh conditions that China successfully launched the first "missile 1059", fueled by alcohol and liquid oxygen, on December 5, 1960, marking a successful imitation of Soviet missile. The missile 1059 was later renamed as Dongfeng-1.
While the imitation of Soviet missile was still in progress, the Fifth Academy led by Qian had begun the development of Dongfeng-2, the first missile to be designed and built completely by the Chinese. After a failed attempt in March 1962, multiple improvements, and hundreds of engine firing tests, DF-2 achieved its first successful launch on its second attempt on Jun 29, 1964 in Jiuquan. It was considered as a major milestone in China's indigenous missile development history.
In the next few years, Dongfeng-2 conducted seven more launches, all ended in success. On October 27, 1966, as part of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" project, Dongfeng-2A, an improved version of DF-2, successfully launched and detonated a nuclear warhead at its target. As China's missile industry matures, a new plan of developing carrier rockets and launching satellites was proposed and approved in 1965 with the name Project 581 changed to Project 651. On January 30, 1970, China successfully tested the newly developed two-stage Dongfeng-4 missile, which demonstrated critical technologies like rocket staging, engine in-flight ignition, attitude control. The DF-4 was used to develop the Long March 1, with a newly designed spin-up orbital insertion solid-propellant rocket motor third stage added to the two existing Nitric acid/UDMH liquid propellant stages.
China's space program benefited from the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's rugged interior in preparation for potential invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States. Almost all of China's new aerospace work units in the late 1960s and early 1970s were established as part of the Third Front and Third Front projects included expansion of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, building Xichang Satellite Launch Center, and building Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
On April 24, 1970, China successfully launched the 173 kg Dong Fang Hong I atop a Long March 1 rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It was the heaviest first satellite placed into orbit by a nation. The third stage of the Long March 1 was specially equipped with a 40 m2 solar reflector deployed by the centrifugal force developed by the spin-up orbital insertion solid propellant stage. China's second satellite was launched with the last Long March 1 on March 3, 1971. The 221 kg ShiJian-1 was equipped with a magnetometer and cosmic-ray/x-ray detectors.
In addition to the satellite launch, China also made small progress in human spaceflight. The first successful launch and recovery of a T-7A sounding rocket carrying a biological experiment was on July 19, 1964, from Base 603. As the space race between the two superpowers reached its climax with the conquest of the Moon, Mao and Zhou Enlai decided on July 14, 1967, that China should not be left behind, and started China's own crewed space program. China's first spacecraft designed for human occupancy was named Shuguang-1 in January 1968. China's Space Medical Institute was founded on April 1, 1968, and the Central Military Commission issued the order to start the selection of astronauts. The first crewed space program, known as Project 714, was officially adopted in April 1971 with the goal of sending two astronauts into space by 1973 aboard the Shuguang spacecraft. The first screening process for astronauts had already ended on March 15, 1971, with 19 astronauts chosen. But the program was soon canceled in the same year due to political turmoil, ending China's first human spaceflight attempt.
While CZ-1 was being developed, the development of China's first long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, namely Dongfeng-5, has started since 1965. The first test flight of DF-5 was conducted in 1971. After that, its technology was adopted by two different models of Chinese medium-lift launch vehicles being developed. One of the two was Feng Bao 1 developed by Shanghai's 2nd Bureau of Mechanic-Electrical Industry, the predecessor of Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. The other parallel medium-lift LV program, also based on the same DF-5 ICBM and known as Long March 2, was started in Beijing by the First Research Academy of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building, which later became China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Both FB-1 and CZ-2 were fueled by N2O4 and UDMH, the same propellant used by DF-5.
On July 26, 1975, FB-1 made its first successful flight, placing the 1107-kilogram Changkong-1 satellite into orbit. It was the first time that China launched a payload heavier than 1 metric ton. Four months later, on November 26, CZ-2 successfully launched the FSW-0 No.1 recoverable satellite into orbit. The satellite returned to earth and was successfully recovered three days later, making China the third country capable of recovering a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the United States. FB-1 and CZ-2, which were developed by two different institutes, were later evolved into two different branches of the classic Long March rocket family: Long March 4 and Long March 2.
As part of the Third Front effort to relocate critical defense infrastructure to the relatively remote interior, it was decided to construct a new space center in the mountainous region of Xichang in the Sichuan province, code-named Base 27. After expansion, the Northern Missile Test Site was upgraded as a test base in January 1976 to become the Northern Missile Test Base known as Base 25.