Wang Xiji

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Wang Xiji aboard the President Cleveland in 1950

Wang Xiji ( Chinese 王希 季, Pinyin Wáng Xījì ), born  July 26, 1921 in Kunming , is a Chinese aerospace engineer. He was the chief designer of the T-7 sounding rocket , the Jianbing return satellites, and China's first Long March 1 launcher . On September 18, 1999, he was awarded the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" (两弹一星 功勋 奖章) Order of Merit. In 2016, he became the first Chinese person to be inducted into the International Astronautical Federation 's Hall of Fame .

Youth, studies and teaching

Wang Xiji was born on July 26, 1921 in Kunming, Yunnan Province , the third of seven sons of Wang Yukun (王毓崑), a Bai ethnic merchant from the village of Shangmo (上 末 村) in what was then Qiliqiao Municipality (七里 桥乡) in Dali . After the lower level of high school, which he graduated as the best in Kunming despite a six-month cold before the exam, he switched to the Kunming Higher Vocational School for Industrial Professions (昆 华 高级 工业 职业 学校, today's Kunming University of Technology ) at his father's request . After about a year he took the entrance exam to the United Southwest University , passed it and enrolled there in November 1938, at the age of 17, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. After completing his intermediate diploma (学士) in 1942, he first worked in the Kunming ammunition and weapons factory (昆明 兵工厂), then in the Shilongba hydropower plant .

While working at the armaments factory, he realized that China's industry was still very backward. Like many young academics at the time, he then decided to study abroad for further training. In 1947 he passed the entrance exam for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and traveled to the United States the following year. In Virginia he began to study drive and fuel technology , which he completed in 1949 with an engineering degree.

In early October 1949, as he was preparing to begin his doctoral studies, news spread across the United States that the People's Republic of China had been founded. Since 1946, members of the CCP had founded underground organizations from students close to Communism in American university cities, for example the "Chi Society" (芝 社) in Chicago, the "Rebuilding Society " (建 社) in Pittsburgh, and the "Morgenrot" in New York -Society "(朝 社). In the early summer of 1949 there were finally 13 such local groups, which on June 18, 1949, at a meeting in Pittsburgh, united to form the Association of Chinese Scientific Workers in USA or 中国 留美 科学 工作者 协会. In addition to improving the working and living conditions of Chinese academics in the USA, the main goal of the association was to support students returning to China after completing their studies so that they could help build the country there.

The American government was aware of this, which is why it offered all kinds of financial incentives to young Chinese graduates to prevent them from leaving, while the People's Republic of China could only offer returning scientists and engineers a monthly salary, with which they could buy 300 kg of millet. At the time, many fellow students tried to persuade Wang Xiji to do his doctorate first and then return to China. Some even said that he should stay in America after all. (In addition to the Association of Chinese Scientific Workers , there was also the Chinese Students Christian Association in North America, which was closely related to parts of the Kuomintang ). Wang Xiji was not deterred, however, and with the financial support of the Association of Chinese Scientific Workers, he boarded the SS President Cleveland , a passenger ship of the SS President Cleveland , with several dozen other students as well as the mathematician Hua Luogeng and the physicist Zhu Guangya in March 1950 American President Lines , back to China. There he first worked as an associate professor (副教授) at the Technical University of Dalian , then as a full professor at the Jiaotong University in Shanghai , where he soon rose to become vice dean of the Faculty of Technical Mechanics (工程 力学 系).

Space technology

Sounding rockets

On August 21, 1958, Qian Xuesen , Zhao Jiuzhang and the geophysicist Wei Yiqing (卫 一 清, 1915–1988), in connection with the " Project 581 " for the development of a Chinese satellite, had the " Engineering Office 1001 " (1001 设计院) founded, which was responsible for the overall planning of the satellite and launcher. Since Shanghai was one of the few industrial centers in China at the time, the office was relocated from Beijing to Shanghai after negotiations between the Chinese Academy of Sciences , the sponsor of the satellite project, and the board of the Shanghai branch of the CCP and moved to "Engineering Office for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Shanghai “(上海 机电 设计院) renamed. In November 1958, Wang Xiji, who joined the CCP that year, received a notice from the Party's Human Resources Department (中国 共产党 上海市 委员会 人事部) that he had been transferred to that engineering office for all technical matters be responsible; His administrative duties at Jiaotong University would still have to be carried out on the side.

It was only when he reported to the engineering company for duty that Wang Xiji learned that it was a secret satellite project and that the strictest confidentiality should be kept from outsiders. Without any prior knowledge - Qian Xuesen was the only engineer in China at the time who had already dealt with liquid rocket engines - but Wang Xiji and his colleagues went to work with a lot of enthusiasm. The first step towards a launch vehicle was to develop a sounding rocket , which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Finally, given the problems with the Great Leap Forward , the Chinese leadership was reassessed. On January 21, 1959, Zhang Jingfu , vice president of the academy, had to tell the scientists that Deng Xiaoping (then general secretary of the CCP Political Bureau ) had ordered the satellite project to be postponed because it would not be compatible with the country's economic strength.

The suspension of the satellite project did not refer to the sounding rockets intended as a preliminary study. Zhao Jiuzhang, head of the Institute for Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, decided to continue to finance the work in Shanghai from the academy's funds. On February 19, 1960, a prototype reached the sounding rocket T-7 an altitude of 8 km, and from March 1960 in the field of administrative village Maolin in the province of Anhui from the Institute of Geophysics and Engineering office for mechanical and electrical engineering together the base 603 as Relatively well-equipped launch site for sounding rockets built. While altitude research was carried out on base 603 with payloads designed by Zhao Jiuzhang, Wang Xiji continued rocket development as chief engineer in Shanghai. The successor to the T-7 was planned to be the dirigible T-8, and the T-9, on which he was working in parallel, could have launched a satellite into orbit.

On November 5, 1960, in connection with the Chinese nuclear weapons program, the first short-range missile , later called Dongfeng 1 , was launched, and on March 21, 1962, the first, albeit one-minute flight, of a medium-range missile took place. The country's leadership then came to the conclusion that it would be better to redesign the existing surface-to-surface missiles so that they would be suitable for space. Work on the T-8 and T-9 was stopped in January 1963 and the engineering office was placed under the Ministry of Defense's 5th Research Institute , which was responsible for the development of military missiles.

Long March 1 and Dong Fang Hong I.

In 1964, Field Marshal Nie Rongzhen , the head of the Defense Technology Commission of the People's Liberation Army , gave the official instruction that the engineering office for mechanical and electrical engineering should take over the supervision of the construction of the planned launcher. When the 5th Research Institute was finally detached from the Ministry of Defense by resolution of the National People's Congress of January 4, 1965 and converted into the independent “ Seventh Ministry of Mechanical Engineering ”, the Shanghai facility was named “8. Engineering office "(七 机 部 第八 设计院) subordinated. At the same time, Nie Rongzhen and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai approved “ Project 651 ”, ie “the project started in January 1965”, for a renewed attempt to build and launch a satellite. The engineering office for mechanical and electrical engineering was relocated to Beijing , Wang Xiji and almost the entire workforce of several hundred men and women, most of whom had come to the office during their studies, moved north.

Wang Xiji, now chief engineer of the 8th engineering office, came to the conclusion after an analysis of the military material that the plan to make a medium-range missile suitable for space and to launch a satellite with the weight specified by the Academy of Sciences was not technically feasible . Instead, he proposed to put a third stage with a solid rocket engine on the two-stage medium-range missile Dongfeng 2A, which was successfully launched on June 29, 1964 . After two successful test launches with a model based on the T-7A sounding rocket in August 1968, the Langer Marsch 1 launcher was built according to this principle and launched China's first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, into space on April 24, 1970 .

Return satellites

In August 1965, parallel to the work on the satellite, the Academy of Sciences began developing a spacecraft that could return to Earth unscathed. In June 1966, a return satellite working group was formed at the engineering office for satellite construction of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , and Wang Xiji was in charge of it in addition to his duties at the 8th engineering office. On February 20, 1968, at the suggestion of Nie Rongzhen, the “5. Academy ”, also known at that time as the“ Academy for Space Technology ”. In addition to the engineering office for satellite construction, the 8th engineering office was one of the institutes that formed the new academy. From “5. Academy "and" 8. Office "the name" Institute 508 "was formed. Wang Xiji became one of the deputy directors of the Academy for Space Technology, but at the same time remained chief engineer of the institute and primarily dealt with the conception of the landing system of the return satellites, i.e. H. parachute deployment, etc., an area in which he had already gained experience while working on the sounding rockets.

Wang Xiji and Institute 508 were quite successful at this. Between 1975 and 2005 a total of 22 reconnaissance satellites of the pioneering series (尖兵, Pinyin Jiānbīng ) were launched from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome , all of which - with one exception in 1993 - returned safely to Earth. This made the pioneering satellites far superior to the USA's keyhole satellites, which performed a similar function . For comparison: Twelve satellites of the KH-5 Argon type were launched between 1961 and 1964, with at least seven failures; of the 74 Soviet Zenit-2s that entered orbit between 1962 and 1970, 16 failed to return to Earth successfully.

Manned spaceflight

In addition, Wang Xiji was one of those scientists and engineers who began working on the first studies for a manned spaceship in March 1966. In 1967 he was appointed head of the working group that had to prepare a concrete feasibility study. In April 1970, Institute 508 finally presented plan drawings and a 1: 1 model of the “ Shuguang-1 ”, or “Dawn 1”, at a conference with over 400 experts from 80 research institutes across the country at the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing , a scaled-down replica of the American Gemini capsule for two people. On July 14, 1970, under the impression of the successful satellite launch in April, Mao Zedong approved the project, which later turned out to be completely unrealistic and was discontinued in March 1975 on the instructions of the State Council of the People's Republic of China .

After Deng Xiaoping had approved the National Program for the Development of High Technology in March 1986 , where the development of a space transport system was planned in Department 2 (space travel), which was supposed to bring people to a space station that was also to be developed, organized Wang Xiji, then chairman of the board of the Chinese Academy for space technology , between April and October 1986 three conferences that dealt specifically with the technologies for a space station. In addition, the Academy for Space Technology published a collection of material, compiled under his leadership, on the approaches pursued at home and abroad on this subject for internal use.

In April 1987, a call for tenders for the space transport system took place, in which two different approaches emerged: a Soyuz -like spaceship (today's Shenzhou spaceship of the Academy for Space Technology ) and a shuttle- like space glider (the later Tianjiao 1 of the Academy for Launch Vehicle Technology) ). In September 1987, a delegation headed by Wang Xiji traveled to the USA to visit the Martin Marietta company , which among other things manufactured the main tank for the space shuttle, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston . He was confirmed in his view that a space glider was beyond the Chinese possibilities. In July 1989, Deng Xiaoping rejected both concepts.

After Jiang Zemin took over the office of party chairman from Deng Xiaoping in November 1989, and that of chairman of the Central Military Commission in March 1990 , manned spaceflight began again. On January 17, 1992, Wang Xiji was appointed by the National Defense Commission for Science, Technology and Industry to the "Working Group Feasibility Study for the Manned Space Program ", the results of which on September 21, 1992 led to the start of the People's Republic of China's manned space program . In the further course he helped with the construction of the lock between the orbital module and the return capsule of the spaceship, which was successfully tested for the first time by the two space travelers during the Shenzhou 6 mission on October 13, 2005.

Satellite-based Internet

Wang Xiji, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1993, worked in an advisory capacity for the Academy of Space Technology until old age. On January 1, 2016, the far-reaching reform of national defense and the military came into force, which also changed the procurement system in the People's Liberation Army . While the military and civil sectors were previously strictly separated for security reasons, as much dual-use technology as possible should now be developed in order to achieve synergy effects by merging the military and civil sectors (军民 融合) . Shortly afterwards, in February 2016, Wang Xiji set up an Internet + (互联网 +) working group at the company's research and development department (院 研究 发展 部) for a satellite-based Internet shared by military and civilian customers. The Hongyan constellation emerged from this, and a first test satellite, Hongyan 1 , was launched on December 29, 2018.

After the State Commission for Development and Reform added the satellite-based Internet to the list of projects belonging to the New Infrastructure (新型 建设 设施 建设, 新 基建 for short) on April 20, 2020, the Academy of Space Technology stopped work on the Hongyan Constellation initially a. Then, however, on April 22, 2021 , the Commission for the Control and Management of State Assets, which is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China , founded the China Satellite Network Corporation with the task of building a national satellite Internet. The management staff of the new company were largely recruited from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation , while the staff of the Academy for Satellite-Based Networks, which was founded as a subsidiary for system development, comes mainly from the Chinese Academy for Space Technology .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 集团公司 党组 、 研究院 党委 领导 看望 王希 季 院士 ， 祝 王先生 98 岁 生日 快乐！ In: cast.cn. July 26, 2019, accessed December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
  2. ^ IAF Hall of Fame Award. In: iafastro.org. Accessed December 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Wang Xiji in Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 4, 2019.
  4. ↑ 历史 沿革. In: kmust.edu.cn. Retrieved December 4, 2019 (Chinese).
  5. ↑ a b 赵聪:与 党 同龄 的 “百岁 国宝” 王希 季 ， 祝 您 生日 快乐！ In: xinhuanet.com. July 26, 2021, accessed July 26, 2021 (Chinese).
  6. ↑ 董宇虹:抗战 档案 揭秘 ： 昆明 是 战时 中国 重要 军工 重工业 基地. In: km.wenming.cn. July 12, 2016, Retrieved December 4, 2019 (Chinese).
  7. ↑ 程 宏 et al .: 1949 年前 后 留美 学生 组织 及其 期刊. In: people.chisa.edu.cn. November 12, 2015, accessed April 18, 2021 (Chinese).
  8. ↑ 王希 季:箭 击 长空 忆 当年. In: cas.cn. Retrieved December 5, 2019 (Chinese).
  9. ↑ 1958. In: cas.cn. September 28, 2009, accessed July 1, 2020 (Chinese).
  10. ↑ 赵竹青:东方 红 一号 ”中国 第 一颗 人造卫星 诞生 内幕. In: scitech.people.com.cn. April 14, 2010, Retrieved December 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  11. ↑ T-7 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 6, 2019.
  12. ↑ 王希 季. In: sourcedb.cas.cn. June 24, 2009, Retrieved December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
  13. ↑ FSW in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on November 24, 2019 (English).
  14. ↑ 王希 季:箭 击 长空 忆 当年. In: cas.cn. Retrieved December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
  15. ↑ FSW in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 7, 2019.
  16. ↑ Zenit-2 satellite in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 7, 2019.
  17. ↑ a b 刘泽康:与 党 同龄！ 庆祝 王希 季 院士 百岁 诞辰. In: cmse.gov.cn. July 26, 2021, accessed July 26, 2021 (Chinese).
  18. ↑ 刘炳峰:毛泽东 与 中国 “载人 航天” 事业 的 起步. In: calt.spacechina.com. June 14, 2016, Retrieved December 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  19. ↑ 王希 季 ： 一事 能 狂 便 少年. In: china.com.cn. April 4, 2001, Retrieved December 4, 2019 (Chinese).
  20. ↑ 朱增泉:中国 飞船 - 中国 载人 航天 工程 总设计师 王永志 访谈 录. In: people.com.cn. October 17, 2003, Retrieved December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
  21. ↑ 王希 季 ： 一事 能 狂 便 少年. In: china.com.cn. April 4, 2001, Retrieved December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
  22. ↑ Wang Xiji. In: iafastro.org. Accessed December 7, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Minnie Chan: General Zhang Youxia: Xi Jinping's 'sworn brother' now his deputy on China's top military body. In: South China Morning Post . October 25, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
  24. ↑ 王希 季 院士 主持 召开 "五 院 互联网 + 航天 行动 研究" 课题 启动 会. In: cast.cn. March 4, 2016, Retrieved December 7, 2019 (Chinese).
Note: In this article, the family name is placed before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Wang is the family name here, Xiji is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Wang, Xiji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 王希 季 (Chinese); Wáng Xījì (Pinyin)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Chinese aerospace engineer
BIRTH DATE July 26, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Kunming , Yunnan Province