Yu Jun aimed his telescope at a bright star in the night sky. A moment later, a dim light passed across it, along the very path foreign astronomy websites had forecast.
"Dongfanghong-1," Yu Jun noted in his observer diary.
"I can hardly believe that several decades after its launch, China's first satellite can still be seen. It's amazing," he exclaims.
The launch of Dongfanghong-1 on April 24, 1970 marked China's entry into a new epoch of space exploration.
But less-well understood is how China developed high-end space technologies during impoverished and turbulent times.
GREAT LEAP FORWARD
In 1957, the Soviet Union and United States each launched their first satellites, officially starting a space race. A year later, Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong proposed, "We too should produce satellites."
Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences began a satellite program with the aim of launching China's first satellite in 1960.
At that time - during the Great Leap Forward - ordinary Chinese talked of "launching high-yield satellites" in a reference to reporting fictitiously high crop yields or industrial output. But a satellite launch could not be fabricated.
The young scientists worked day and night for three months and produced models of the rocket and the satellite. But many questions were left unresolved, because they lacked basic theory and computing methods. Their first attempt failed.
In the autumn of 1958, Zhao Jiuzhang and other scientists were given a cold shoulder when they visited the Soviet Union to study space technology. China had to be self-reliant to develop a satellite.
China lacked the technological industry support that was necessary for the research and development of satellites. Realizing this, the scientists decided to begin with a sounding rocket.
