Space

Gazing at the stars

By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 10:11

BYLINE  ZHAO HUANXIN

I was born in the year China sent its first satellite into orbit in 1970, but I never expected that I would grow up pursuing aerospace stories.

I don't know whether it was because the country's space program fell into the category of "State secret", or because I was not well informed. All I knew about space when I started reporting in the late 1990s was the 1970 satellite and a legend about Wan Hu, the first man believed to have blasted off 500 years ago by sitting on a chair rigged with two kites and 47 rockets.

By 1998, when I was assigned to the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, the country was six years into its manned space program, codenamed "921 Project". It was, however, not until late 2003, when China had successfully staged its first manned space flight, that the media began to mention the project by that name.

Bundled up in a thick coat, I stood in the biting cold about 2 kilometers from the launch site to experience the earth-shaking moment. A Long March (LM) rocket blasted two iridium satellites into orbit for a United States company, sending off a heat wave blast toward onlookers with a deafening noise.

I totally forgot the possible danger of an explosion, which was the fate of a commercial launch of the US-made Intelsat 708 atop an LM-3B rocket in China less than two years earlier. Partly boosted by a chain of successes, executives and decision-makers in the country's space sector began to speak out.

For several years, I was the first in the media circles to learn from Zhang Qingwei, then president of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, about the exact number of satellites and spacecraft to be launched in a whole year.

As trust with industry insiders built up, I got more scoops.

One was from Liu Zhixiong, vice-president of the China Great Wall Industry Corp, who told me that China would send an anti-jamming communications satellite into space. It was capable of carrying radio and TV signals to all of China and parts of the US.

I have covered most unmanned and manned space flights since November 1999, sometimes stayed at the command center several nights on end, watching real-time video streams beaming down from the space module, or seeing astronauts wave to a cheering crowd in flower-laden cars after they returned safely to Earth.

Unlike the early 1990s, when only a handful of people knew that the country had initiated a manned space program, journalists in the first years of this new millennium were able to report detailed timetables of China's crusade toward the final frontier, including completing a space station by around 2020.

On April 25, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said at a press conference that it wants the public to suggest names for the 60-ton space station.

This reminds me of a similar event in August 2005, when I reported: "If you design a logo that is innovative and attractive enough, the chances are your masterpiece will instantly be known throughout China - and on the moon."

I've now shifted to other beats, but those star-gazing years offered me a chance to witness the country grow more powerful, confident and transparent in space.

Zhao Huanxin is deputy director of the Editor's Office of China Daily.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page17)