The formerly classified manuscript written by the father of
China's space and missile industry has been published.
Qian Xuesen's manuscript entitled A General Introduction to
the Missile hit the shelves in Beijing on Friday, 50 years
after Qian first used it to teach 156 university students, China's
first generation of space scientists.?
"The manuscript was China's first textbook on space and missiles
but it was defined as a classified document in 1956," said Shi Lei,
vice president of the China Astronautic Publishing House, the
book's publisher.
"Although the content of A General Introduction to
Missile was passed on by word of mouth between different
generations of Chinese space scientists, few people ever saw the
manuscript," Shi said.
"The publishing of the book marks the 50th anniversary of
China's space industry and the 95th anniversary of
Qian's birth," he said.
Born in 1911 in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, Qian
Xusen, or Tsien Hsue-sen, left for the United States after winning
a scholarship in 1936. He earned a doctorate and became a professor
at the California Institute of Technology. In October 1955, Qian
and his family returned to Beijing.
He led the development of China's first nuclear-armed ballistic
missiles and worked on its first satellite, launched in 1970.
Qian retired in 1991. His research formed the basis for the Long
March CZ-2F rocket that carried China's astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit.
An autographed copy by Qian was given to the National Museum of
China.
(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2006)
