Engineering:Fanhui Shi Weixing-0

Short description: First class of Chinese reconnaissance satellites

FSW-0

Mock-up at a Shanghai Museum
Mission type	Imagery intelligence
Mission duration	3-6 days
Orbits completed	47
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	"Recoverable Satellite 0"
Manufacturer	China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
Payload mass	1,800 kilograms
Start of mission
Launch site	Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC)
Entered service	5 November 1974 (1974-11-05Z) UTC
End of mission
Declared	5 August 1987 (1987-08-06Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Inclination	62°

The Fanhui Shi Weixing-0 satellite series, commonly written as "FSW-0" (Chinese: 返回式卫星0号; pinyin: Fǎnhuí Shì Wèixīng 0 Hào; literally: 'Recoverable Satellite 0'), also known by its program's military nickname "Jianbing 1", was the first class of Chinese reconnaissance satellites developed in 1966 and launched ten times between 1974 and 1987 to collect imagery of the Chinese mainland. FSW-0 satellites were launched into a short-term orbit to image before they fell from orbit, recovered, and the captured imagery extracted. FSW-0 was the first of four FSW classes of recoverable satellites developed and launched by the China .

Development

The beginnings of the FSW-0 (military designation "Jianbing-1") recoverable satellite began in 1965 when Qian Xuesen conceived and proposed the idea and, after significant and tragic setbacks, finally completed in 1974.

Having returned to Mainland China from the United States after pressure from FBI and Ku Klux Klan during the Second Red Scare, "father of the Chinese missile program" Qian Xuesen began a remarkably successful career in rocket science, boosted by the reputation he garnered for his past achievements, and eventually rose through the Party's ranks to become a Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party member. Purportedly out of his dream for manned spaceflight but also recognizing the military value, Qian Xuesen urged the Chinese Central Planning Committee to invest in the development of recoverable satellite technologies, similar to those the United States and Soviet Union had been successfully operating since the early 1960s. Interested more in the military value recoverable satellites would provide, the committee accepted and tasked space physicist and engineer Zhao Jiuzhang (who is today known as the "father of the Chinese satellite program" for his work as the chief designer of China's first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1) to head the project. Earnest work on the project began in 1965 after Jiuzhang's team submitted a preliminary analysis of requirements having toured military and civilian organizations to assess potential applications of a recoverable satellite program. Wang Xiji, an American-educated rocket scientist and designer of the Long March 1 rocket which would launch the Dong Fang Hong 1 satellite in 1970, was named chief designer of the recoverable satellite program.

In May 1966, Mao Zedong, with the help of the Cultural Revolution Group, launched the Cultural Revolution with the stated goal of preserving Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society and to re-impose Mao Zedong Thought (known outside China as Maoism) as the dominant ideology in the China . Among other groups, the purges of Mao's Red Guards focused heavily on academics and intellectuals regarded as the "Stinking Old Ninth" which included the seizure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the persecution of 131 of the 171 senior members and the killings of 229 members. Zhao Jiuzhang was killed (though some sources say he committed suicide under the pressures of persecution), Qian Xeusen was reduced to the role of a common worker, and Wang Xiji was accused of sabotaging an FSW test parachute for which he fought to prove his innocence. Later in 1971, when Mao's successor Lin Biao died in a plane crash following an abortive coup d'état, Mao initiated an immense witch-hunt to oust potential supporters of Lin Biao. As a result, many departments of the Academy were closed to include the Shuguang project, China's proposed first crewed spacecraft, which had shared much of its technology with the recoverable satellite program costing the team valuable development money and time. Only after several months of persistent attack by Mao's Red Guards did Premier of the China Zhou Enlai intervene to put fifteen key scientists in critical missile programs under state protection while others did their best to survive the violence.

Despite the challenges and four years past its goal, the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) completed the FSW-0 satellite which weighed 1,800 kilograms and carried photographic film and two cameras intended to support both military and civilian needs. FSW-0 carried a prism-scanning panoramic camera and a stellar camera both designed by the Changchun Institute of Optics and tested tested on two T7A rockets in July 1967.

In 1972, several technician teams were dispatched to Laiyang in Shandong, Xinhua in Hunan, Lhasa in Tibet, and Kashgar in Xinjiang to establish the nation's first satellite control, tracking, and telemetry stations. Having established four fixed stations and two mobile, technicians tested the control network with Soviet-made Il-14 aircraft flying at high-altitudes.

On 8 September 1974, FSW-0 No. 1 was transported to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) for launch on a Long March 2 rocket (derived from the Dongfeng 5 ballistic missile). The first attempt to launch an FSW-0 satellite into orbit on 5 November 1974 failed with the rocket exploding approximately twenty seconds after launch and debris crashing 300 meters from the launch pad. Analysis of the recovered debris led Chinese scientists to blame copper wire damage in the rocket during the second stage.

Successful launch

The first successful FSW-0 launched on 26 November 1975 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia Pad 138, Launch Complex 2. Immediately after launch, it became apparent the satellite would be irrecoverable due to a loss of pressure in the gas orientation system. Qian Xeusen estimated the chances of recovery to be near zero while Yang Jiachi (developer of the FSW-0's attitude control system) believed the seeming loss of pressure was only the result of the gasses cooling (Charles' Law) as the spacecraft cooled exiting the atmosphere. Despite Yang's adamance that the mission should continue, the decision was made and Xian Ground Station commanded the satellite to reenter the atmosphere after only three days flight time.

With observers waiting in the mountains of Sichuan, four coal miners seated in a mess hall in Guizhou Province about 400 kilometers away watched a red-hot object crash into a nearby grove of trees around noon. Venturing out to see the crashed object, one reportedly threw a rock and was relieved to hear a metallic sound confirming the object was of terrestrial origin. The miners reported the object to local authorities and the recovery team eventually arrived to find the spacecraft intact and the imagery undamaged. The reentry vehicle was damaged by reentry and the parachute partially burned, however the film was declared undamaged and the mission was deemed as success making China the third nation to capture space-based imagery after the United States' CORONA satellite in 1960 and the Soviet Union's Zenit satellite in 1962.

The extracted imagery was in extremely low resolution and suffered significant distortion from in-orbit movements, however the FSW-0 was launched eight more times on an imagery mission with the final mission purposed to conduct microgravity experiments. The microgravity experiments of the last mission tested the smelting and recrystallization of alloys and semiconductor materials including gallium arsenide and would continue as part of the larger FSW satellite program.

Satellites

FSW-0 Satellites

Name	Military designation	Launch date	Duration	Capsule recovery	SCN	COSPAR ID	Mass (t)	Inclination	Orbit	Rocket
N/A	N/A	5 November 1974	N/A	N/A	N/A	(Failed)	Unknown	N/A	N/A	Long March 2
FSW-0 1	Jianbing-1 1	26 November 1975	3 days	Unknown	8452	1975-111A	1.790	63.0°	181 km × 495 km	Long March 2
FSW-0 2	Jianbing-1 2	7 December 1976	2 days	9 December 1976	9587	1976-117A	1.812	59.49°	172 km × 492 km	Long March 2
FSW-0 3	Jianbing-1 3	26 January 1978	5 days	30 January 1978	10611	1978-011A	1.810	57.0°	169 km × 488 km	Long March 2
FSW-0 4	Jianbing-1 4	9 September 1982	5 days	14 September 1982	13521	1982-090A	1.783	63.0°	175 km × 404 km	Long March 2C
FSW-0 5	Jianbing-1 5	19 August 1983	5 days	24 August 1983	14288	1983-086A	1.842	63.3°	178 km × 415 km	Long March 2C
FSW-0 6	Jianbing-1 6	12 September 1984	5 days	17 September 1984	15279	1984-098A	1.809	62.94°	171 km × 409 km	Long March 2C
FSW-0 7	Jianbing-1 7	21 October 1985	5 days	26 October	16177	1985-096A	1.810	62.98	176 km × 402 km	Long March 2C
FSW-0 8	Jianbing-1 8	6 October 1986	5 days	11 October 1986	17001	1986-076A	1.770	56.96°	142 km × 402 km	Long March 2C
FSW-0 9	Jianbing-1 9	5 August 1987	5 days	10 August 1987	18306	1987-067A	1.810	62.95°	172 km × 410 km	Long March 2C

Image gallery

The following images and annotations came from the National Air Intelligence Center's 1996 human translation of chief designer Wang Xiji's paper "Development of China's Recoverable Satellites."

External video

Footage of China's first recoverable satellite launch failing

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  The FSW-0 satellite

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  Recovery capsule leaving orbit

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  Recovery capsule reentry, deceleration, and landing