People who send China into space

Qian Xuesen (The Precursor of Ginseng) is a scientist with many important contributions to the space and self-propelled bullet programs of both the US and China. The name he used while in America was Hsue-Shen Tsien or HS Tsien.
In Shanghai there is a museum containing 70,000 artifacts dedicated to the “people’s scientist” Qian Xuesen. Qian is the father of China’s rocket and space program. His research helped develop China’s first satellite launch missile into space and the rocket became part of the country’s nuclear arsenal, revered as a national hero.

Qian was born when the last Chinese dynasty was about to be replaced by a republic. From a young age, Qian was gifted and eventually, he graduated with distinction from Shanghai Jiaotong University, winning a rare scholarship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in America. Qian Xuesen (Precursor of Ginseng) From MIT, Qian moved to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), studying under one of the most influential Hungarian aeronautical engineers named Theodore von Karman. There Qian shares his office with another famous scientist, Frank Malina, who is a key member of a small group of innovators known as the Suicide Squad. Fraser MacDonald, author of “Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket”, said the group earned the nickname for its efforts. of them in building a rocket on campus and because of some of their experiments with volatile chemicals. At that time, rocket science was considered by MacDonald as “a tool of reelers and fantasies. No one takes it seriously – no mathematic engineer has risked their reputation in saying this is the future. But, that quickly changed when World War 2 began. The “suicide squad” attracted the attention of the US military and was funded for research on a jet-assisted takeoff method, where the boosters were attached to the wings of aircraft so they could fly. overhead from short runways. Military funding also helped establish the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1943, with its director, Theodore von Karman. Qian, along with Frank Malina, is at the center of the project. Qian is a Chinese citizen but the ROC is an ally of America, so “there is no great doubt that a Chinese scientist is at the heart of America’s space effort,” said Fraser Macdonald. Qian is licensed to work in the classified weapons research department and even served on the US Government Scientific Advisory Board. At the end of the war, Qian was one of the foremost experts in jet engines and was sent with Theodore von Karman on an extraordinary mission to Germany, serving as a temporary lieutenant colonel. Their goal was to interview Nazi engineers, including Wernher von Braun, Germany’s top missile scientist. America wants to find out exactly what the Germans know. But, by the end of the decade, Qian’s sparkling career in America suddenly stopped. In China, Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Meanwhile, a new JPL director believed there was a spy group at the laboratory and shared the suspicions. about a number of employees with the FBI. It is in this atmosphere that the FBI accuses Qian, Frank Malina and others of threats to national security. The allegations against Qian are based on 1938 US Communist Party documents that show Qian attended a social gathering that the FBI suspected was a meeting of the Communist Party of Pasadena. Zuoyue Wang, a history professor at California State Polytechnic University, claims there is no evidence that Qian ever spied for China or was an intelligence agent while he lived in the US. However, Qian was stripped of his security passport and placed under house arrest. Caltech colleagues, including Theodore von Karman, wrote to the government pleading for Qian’s innocence but to no avail. In 1955, after Qian was under house arrest for five years, President Eisenhower decided to expel him to China. The scientist left by boat with his wife and two children born in America. Qian told reporters he would never set foot in America again and that he kept his promise. When he arrived in the US, Qian had very little knowledge of rocket science. But, 15 years later, he oversaw the launch of the first Chinese satellite into space. For decades, Qian trained a new generation of scientists, and his work laid the foundation for China to send people to the Moon. While most Americans know nothing about Qian and his role in the US space program, Tianyu Fang said many Chinese Americans and Chinese students in the US knew about him, why he had to leave. and they see similarities today. “US relations with China have become so much worse that they know they could be suspected of being like Qian’s generation,” Fang commented. In Fraser MacDonald’s view, Qian’s story is a warning about what happens when knowledge shredding. “The whole story of American science is that it was driven by people from outside.” MacDonald believes that JPL’s contribution to the American space program was far ignored compared to Wernher von Braun and other German scientists, who were secretly arriving in America shortly after von Karman and Qian’s visit. Braun was once a Nazi but his achievements are recognized. Whereas the achievements of Qian and others from the JPL are not. Qian’s life lasted for nearly a century. During that time, China has grown from an uneconomical country into a superpower on Earth and in space. Qian is part of that transformation. But, Qian’s story can also be a great American one – where talent can flourish wherever talent is found.