Dr. Qian Xuesen passed away in a hospital in Beijing this past Saturday, October 31st. He was 98, and considered the father of China's space program.
There was a time when space meant the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Times have changed, and Qian Xuesen was a large part of China's entry into space.
Typically, China's space program encompasses military uses (missiles) as well as rocketry. Qian Xuesen was known alternatively in China as the "Father of Chinese Aerospace" or sometimes simply the "Rocket King." He came to the U.S. in 1935 as a student and became one of the leading scientists working on America's nascent missile program.
Born on December 11, 1911, Qian Xuesen was a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the 1940s, and helped develop the first U.S. solid-fuel missiles during World War II. He also took part in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.
Based on his accomplishments, Qian Xuesen was named the first director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Centre at Caltech in 1949. However, as the U.S. entered the McCarthy era in the 1950s, his career trajectory plummeted, as he was accused of Communist leanings and deported.
America's loss was China's gain. Qian Xuesen fought the allegations for some time, but then gave up and returned to China. There, he became the leader of a group of Chinese-born, yet U.S.-trained missile scientists.
Qian Xuesen led China's own program, guiding it to a series of successes, including tests of its first short- and medium-range missiles, and, following China's first successful detonation of a nuclear warhead in 1964, its first ballistic missile.
In 1970, China launched its first satellite, making it a member of the "space club." China's first manned space flight was in 2003.
Qian Xuesen retired in 1991. He remained bitter about his treatment by the U.S. throughout his life. One U.S. official in the 1950's called his treatment the "stupidest thing this country ever did."
John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University added: "He was Joe McCarthy's present to the Chinese. It was the anti-Communist mood in the 1950s that led him home."
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