Scientist Qian Xuesen, known as China's father of space technology, died in Beijing yesterday, aged 98. Qian, a native of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, was widely known for his contributions to China's 'two bombs and one satellite mission' in the 1960s. The effort developed atomic and hydrogen bombs and a satellite. He left war-torn China in 1935 to study in the United States at the aviation department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later studied aviation engineering at the California Institute of Technology. In 1939, he received a PhD in aviation and maths and become one of the top missile scientists in the US. Labelled a communist in 1950, Qian was able to return to China only in an exchange for US pilots captured during the 1950-53 Korean war. Mao Zedong and other communist leaders rolled out the red carpet for Qian, on whom they pinned their hopes of a home-grown weapons industry. Their hopes were not in vain. In 1960, China successfully test-fired its first home-grown ground-launched missile under Qian's stewardship. He played key roles in nuclear bomb tests later in the 1960s, and headed a task force which manufactured and launched China's first man-made satellite in 1970. But his achievements were mired in political controversies. In 1957, two years after Qian's return from the US, Mao launched his 'anti-rightist' campaign, which brutally purged up to 550,000 students and scholars. Qian defended the purges and wrote articles trumpeting their integrity and necessity. But he will be remembered as the person who helped guide China's missile and atomic bomb development for up to two decades.
