China Shuguang manned spacecraft and Long March 2D

In the 1960s, China tried to develop a manned spacecraft, the dawn, and achieved initial success. The author from the General Equipment Department of the people's Liberation Army, through interviewing many people who have been involved in the program, has for the first time systematically disclosed the tortuous story of the secret project from brewing to dismounting, which has brought to the surface a glorious and tragic course in the history of Chinese aerospace.
PlanIn 1964, new China finally got through the most difficult period, and the nightmare of starving people was getting far away. The adjustment of the national economy has been basically completed, and major breakthroughs have been made in the fields of advanced national defense such as missiles and nuclear weapons. In the context of the great strides of the United States and the Soviet Union, how to accelerate the development of China's space technology has become a matter of great importance to science and technology experts and senior leaders.On January 8, 1965, Qian Xuesen submitted a report, analyzing the problems faced by China's aerospace industry, and proposed that "the application of heavier manned satellites in the world, although not very clear at present, must be prepared.". The Commission of science, technology and industry for national defense commented that as long as it is possible in terms of strength, it should be actively engaged in.In August of the same year, the central special committee approved the ten-year development plan for satellites, including one: the first man-made satellite was launched in 1969 or 1970, and the spacecraft was launched 10 years after the satellite was launched. At first, we planned to fight two unmanned spacecraft, called "great leap forward", for which nearly 200 research projects were arranged. "Dongfanghong" satellite and "great leap forward" spacecraft, these names are very consistent with the characteristics of the times. One day in 1967, Qian Xuesen told us that it had been agreed that the first manned spaceship was called "dawn".
However, the development of the Dawn spacecraft itself is full of difficulties.The first generation of manned spacecraft "Oriental" and "Mercury" of the two countries can only carry one person. The design starting point of the Shuguang spacecraft is very high. It adopts a double crew, similar to the second generation of American spacecraft "Gemini". At that time, the intercontinental missile dongfeng-5, which was still under development, was used to launch the Dawn spacecraft, which is similar to the choice of the Soviet Union and the United States in the manned rocket -- from intercontinental missile to manned rocket, the carrying capacity of dongfeng-5 is similar to the "hercules-2" rocket launching the "Gemini" spacecraft.