Dongfanghong 1 Satellite Launched

The Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite in 1957, and in 1958 Mao Zedong called for "we too must build satellites," and China's space technology grew from nothing. Under the leadership of scientists such as Qian Xuesen, Zhao Jiuzhang and Sun Jiadong, technicians worked despite scarce materials and simple equipment. In 1965 China formally began its satellite project, code-named "651," with the requirements that the satellite be able to "go up, be tracked, be heard and be seen." On 24 April 1970 China successfully launched its first satellite, Dongfanghong 1 (The East Is Red 1), on a Long March 1 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The satellite weighed 173 kilograms, heavier than the first satellites of the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan combined, and played the tune The East Is Red in space. China thus became, after the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan, the fifth country to launch a satellite independently with its own rocket, marking its entry into the space age. The success of Dongfanghong 1, together with the atomic and hydrogen bombs, is known as the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" and greatly inspired the whole nation. China's space program then developed rapidly: a recoverable remote-sensing satellite in 1975, its first geostationary communications satellite in 1984, and the successful launch of the uncrewed Shenzhou 1 spacecraft in 1999. In 2016 the state designated 24 April as China Space Day each year. Dongfanghong 1 is still in orbit in space.