1In July, 967, Sun Jiadong, who was busy with missile design, was informed that in order to ensure that the development of the first artificial satellite would not come to a standstill, the central government decided to set up the China Academy of Space Technology, with Qian Xuesen as its president, and Qian Xuesen recommended Sun Jiadong to take charge of the overall design.
Sun Jiadong's first task is to go to the Seventh Machinery Department to select talents. At that time, the two factions of "9 15" and "9 16" were fighting with each other, and the depth of resistance made people feel numb. However, Sun Jiadong did not turn this selection into an adventure. On the basis of a comprehensive understanding and analysis of satellite development, he ran up and down in the No.7 Machinery Department for more than two months, inspected the technical backbones with special skills in various departments in detail, and selected 18 people from them. They are all persevering and sharp-edged soldiers, and will be known as "eighteen warriors in space" in the future. Interestingly, the two factions, who played very dark in the route struggle, had no objection to the candidate chosen by Sun Jiadong. Afterwards, Qian Xuesen commented on Sun Jiadong: "It seems that it is right to get Sun Jiadong. He really dares to do things and will do things. "
1967 17 in February, Sun Jiadong hosted the first meeting on the development of artificial satellites, and approved the overall scheme and the schemes of various systems. Since France became the third country in the world to launch satellites, neighboring Japan is also making preparations. By then, according to China's national conditions, technical foundation and industrial level, it will take a long time to launch according to the satellite design scheme of 1965. This situation prompted China's first satellite to be a political satellite, that is, to simplify the past scheme, remove many detection instruments on the satellite, and not pursue difficult technology. As long as it goes up, it is caught, visible and audible, and it will be successful. In Sun Jiadong's own words many years later, this simplification turned a car into a flatbed.
If you can get up, it will be a successful launch. Grasp, that is, accurately into the track. The difficulty lies in watching and listening.
In the original satellite design scheme, although there are 72 planes, the diameter is only one meter, and the surface reflectivity is not high, and the brightness is only equivalent to six stars with extremely low brightness in the sky. Such a small thing is flying in the sky, and it is difficult for people on the ground to see it with the naked eye. So the diameter will be bigger? However, the satellite exceeded the established weight and the rocket could not send it up. Later, the idea was to cover the three-stage rocket with a bright spherical gas sleeve, which was closed when the satellite was launched. After the satellite is launched, the centrifugal force generated by the spin of the third stage rocket is used to inflate the air sleeve and make it expand into a sphere. This method is a bit like a folding umbrella in principle and feasible in theory. The key is whether we can find the special material to make this kind of air sleeve. I went to many factories in China, but I couldn't develop this special material because the requirements were too high. Finally, in Shanghai, I found a factory, and they developed a new type of silk fabric, which is basically the same as the material needed for gas jackets, but the raw material is toxic, so I stopped producing it a long time ago. And this factory has stopped production in the "big wind and waves". Many workers immediately "put on their shoes" when they learned the purpose of the gas jacket, and changed from "grasping revolution" to "promoting production". After 1 1 month, it was finally successfully developed.
In order to "listen", I also used a lot of brains.
At that time, there were few radios in people's homes, most of which were medium-wave and long-wave, and few were short-wave. Who is not afraid of the crime of "eavesdropping on enemy stations" falling from the sky? Even if there is short wave, the frequency used by the satellite can't be heard, so I thought it was broadcast by China Central Radio. What is broadcasting? Just listening to the engineering signal, ordinary people can't understand it. The broadcast text is incomprehensible to foreigners. The only suitable song is Dongfanghong, which best conveys the characteristics of China.
According to this plan, report to Qian Xuesen, who also supported it, and asked someone to write a report and submit it to Marshal Nie Rongzhen. Nie Shuai agreed to report it to the Central Committee, which approved it, but only allowed satellite broadcast of the first eight paragraphs of Dongfanghong, Sunrise, Mao Zedong in China.
There is another thing that worries Sun Jiadong, and that is Chairman Mao's badge with sb on it.
Holding quotations from Chairman Mao in his hand, Chairman Mao walked around the streets with his badge, which was a landscape all over China during the "Cultural Revolution". In the final assembly of the satellite, along with all kinds of equipment and instruments, there are a large number of badges designed by Chairman Mao himself. Some are big and heavy. After adding the badge, of course, the equipment and instruments are much heavier than before, but I dare not say it after receiving it. Why is it more than half a kilogram? He plausibly said: my instrument is two kilograms, and the extra half kilogram is Chairman Mao's badge. Do you dare to say that this half kilogram is not added? But you add half a kilogram, he adds half a kilogram ... together, the rocket won't start.
1969 10, the initial sample of the satellite was completed, and Qian Xuesen took Sun Jiadong and others to report to Zhou Enlai. The first night before he left, he stayed up all night. What shall we do? Do you want to talk about it? As soon as we met, the Prime Minister took Sun Jiadong's hand and said, Alas, such a young satellite expert is still young. In fact, he is 40 years old this year, but the Prime Minister's words relaxed Sun Jiadong, who was originally nervous. He thought about it for a moment, and then he reported it. Without saying a few words, Zhou Enlai immediately understood. The prime minister didn't directly say it was right or wrong, but "said nothing, it was all romantic":
Of course, the whole party, the whole army and the people of the whole country should love and worship Chairman Mao infinitely. Look at the Great Hall of the People, a politically important place. Some halls are hung with the portrait of the chairman, and some meeting rooms are hung with the handwriting of the chairman. But where to hang it is not casual. We must consider very carefully what is suitable and what is not suitable. You see, there are no hanging objects in our meeting room. Think about it when you go back. ...
When the music "Dongfanghong" started. ...
A stone in Sun Jiadong's heart finally fell to the ground with a bang.
On March 2 1, 65438, 0970, the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite completed the final assembly task and met the launch requirements. On April 25th, at 1970 and 18, Xinhua News Agency authorized to announce to the world:
1970 On April 24th, China successfully launched its first artificial satellite. The perigee altitude of the satellite orbit is 439 kilometers and the apogee altitude is 2384 kilometers. The angle between the orbital plane and the equatorial plane of the earth is 68.5 degrees, and it takes 1 14 minutes to circle the earth. The satellite weighs 173 kg and plays the music of Dongfanghong regularly at a frequency of 20.009 megacycles.
The first Soviet satellite weighed 83.6 kilograms, the first American satellite was the lightest, only 8.22 kilograms, the first French satellite weighed 38 kilograms and the first Japanese satellite weighed 9.4 kilograms. China's "Dongfanghong-1" not only exceeds the original design of100kg, but also is equivalent to the sum of the first satellites of the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan. This not only realized Mao Zedong's ambition of "We don't throw eggs as big as ours", but also sang the sweet "Dongfanghong" in space for people all over the world to see and hear.
On the 25th, People's Daily published a full-page timetable for this satellite to pass through all parts of the motherland: when it will pass through Tianjin, when it will pass through Guangzhou and when it will pass through Shanghai ... At 8: 30 that night, the satellite will pass over Beijing. Chang 'an Avenue was brightly lit, and crowds poured into Tiananmen Square, beating gongs and drums, chanting slogans such as "Long live Chairman Mao" and "Celebrating the great victory of the Cultural Revolution", craning their necks to search for the moving and twinkling little star among the stars.
No one would have thought that Sun Jiadong, the chief technical officer of China's first artificial satellite, was not in charge of the command at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu at this time, but was buried in the noisy Tiananmen Square.
Following the "two bombs", the first man-made earth satellite was successfully launched, which once again won the pride and dignity of China as a big country. However, where are the astronauts in China? At this point, Sun Jiadong "sidelined" because of his birth. Mr. Zhao Jiuzhang and Mr. Yao died with bitterness. Qian Ji and many other early scientists involved in satellite engineering heard the music of Dongfanghong in the "bullpen". ...
According to experts who study China's space history, China's space journey has gone through five stages so far-
In the first stage, the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite was successfully launched, which is the first earth satellite in China ... In the fifth stage, the first decade of the new century, the manned spacecraft Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou VI were successfully launched, and in September 2007, the "Chang 'e-1" lunar exploration satellite was successfully launched, which is the first lunar satellite in China.