Sun Jiadong

Sun Jiadong was a Chinese spacecraft engineer regarded as one of the founding figures of China's satellite program, serving as chief engineer and overall technical leader for Dong Fang Hong I, China's first artificial satellite, launched in 1970 under the direction of Qian Xuesen, who had recruited him to the China Academy of Space Technology. He went on to serve as chief designer for China's early recoverable reconnaissance satellites and its first geostationary communications satellite, Dong Fang Hong II, helping establish the technical foundation of China's national satellite industry across the 1970s and 1980s. From 2003 he was appointed chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, known as the Chang'e program, overseeing it through the successful 2007 launch of the Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter, China's first spacecraft to travel beyond Earth orbit. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and received China's Two Bombs, One Satellite Merit Medal in 1999, one of the country's highest scientific honors.