Long March Carrier Rocket II is ready to lift off.

　　
On April 1, 2002, the Shenzhou III Spaceship landed at the designated area. (Xinhua News Agency)

　　The space program in China witnessed a glorious course in the past 35 years since China successfully launched the first man-made satellite in 1970. In those 35 years, China has blazed a development path with Chinese characteristics in a relatively short span of time and with less investment according to the actual conditions of China and made a host of vital achievements.

　　The first man-made satellite

　　On October 6, 1956, the first rocket and missile research institute of China - known as the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense, came into being officially, indicating that the space industry of China has stepped onto the stage of the world since then. Thanks to the painstaking efforts and explorations of the scientific research fellows, Dongfanghong I blasted off successfully from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on July 24, 1970, making China the fifth nation in the world to have successfully launched a satellite independently by relying entirely on its own efforts after the former Soviet Union, the U.S, France and Japan.

　　The first retrievable satellite

　　Since 1966 when the project was authorized, those who were involved in the R&D of the retrievable satellite tackled one technical barrier after another and successfully launched the first retrievable satellite on November 26, 1975. The satellite ran in the orbit for three days with all major systems working normally. The event made China the third nation in the world to master the technology of retrievable satellite.

　　The first communication satellite

　　The attempt of launching the first experimental communication satellite by the Long March III Carrier Rocket was made on January 29,1984. However, the satellite failed to reach the designated orbit due to the failure of the second ignition of the tri-substage of the rocket. On April 8 of the same year, China launched another experimental communication satellite, which was fixed at 125 degree east longitude above the equator on April 16. It was China's first geo-stationary orbit satellite and was named Dongfanghong II.

　　The first weather satellite

　　China kicked off its research in weather satellite in 1970s. On September 7, 1988, it successfully blasted off the first experimental weather satellite Fengyun IA for the first time, which entered the sun-synchronous orbit precisely. The success of Fengyun IA made China the third nation which could develop polar orbit satellite by itself in the world.

　　The first resource satellite

　　China successfully launched the first China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite I (CBERS I), which was developed jointly with Brazil, on October 14, 1999 and set up a new landmark of space remote sensor system of China.

　　The first ocean satellite

　　On May 15, 2002, China launched the first ocean satellite Ocean I which operates on the sun-synchronous circular orbit at 798 km above the sea level.

　　The first Beidou navigation satellite

　　On October 31 and December 21 of 2000 and May 25, 2003, China successfully injected three Beidou navigation locating satellites to the space and established an improved satellite navigation system independently.

　　The first unmanned experimental spaceship

　　The mastery of the matured retrievable satellite technology and the successful set-up of the applied technical satellite network such as the communication satellite, the weather satellite, the earth resource satellite, the ocean satellite and the navigation satellite made the practice of launching manned spaceship a reachable goal. On November 20, 1999, the Shenzhou I Spaceship was successfully launched, which tested all the shuttle systems, the launching system and the newly established terrestrial-ocean based space flight observing and controlling network which has met the international standards. Later, new expansion concerning the system structure was made on Shenzhou II which attained the similar technical status of manned spaceship. Shenzhou III had acquired the same technical status as the manned spaceship and was equipped with human metabolism simulator and stimulated human physical signal equipments (i.e. simulator of human being) and added to it the escape and emergency life saving functions. Shenzhou IV carried out a flight experiment with the most complete assessment of the spaceship with no human being astronaut. It was added a number of new functions such as manual control and automatic emergency return on the basis of the matured technologies of the first three unmanned spaceships.

　　The first manned spaceship

　　On October 15, 2003, the Shenzhou V Spaceship carried Yang Liwei, the first astronaut of China, into the space, making China the third nation which has sent astronaut into the space after Russia and the U.S.

　　At present, the launch of Shenzhou VI is imminent. Comparing with Shenzhou V, Shenzhou VI has new qualitative achievements on various technical status. The space flight workers are working hard at their posts and devoting themselves to the space flight cause of China. In the future, they will prove the ambition, confidence and capability of Chinese people to realize the great national rejuvenation with one space flight feat after another.

　　By Mou Jiajin and Zhao Bo

　　(Oct. 10, PLA Daily)