Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, also known as "Dongfeng Space City", is one of the launch test bases for China's scientific satellites, technology test satellites and launch vehicles. It is the earliest and largest comprehensive missile and satellite in China. The launch center is also China's only manned space launch site. It is located deep in the uninhabited Badain Jaran Desert, more than 200 kilometers away from the nearest local city of Jiuquan City. At that time, it was named after "Jiuquan". Firstly, at that time, countries avoided the real address when naming their missile satellite launch sites. Secondly, the launch site was located in the Gobi desert, so it was difficult to choose a well-known place name, and Jiuquan was the closest to the launch center. And it is a famous city in history.
Construction of Jiuquan base began
In March 1958, a military train was parked at Sinanju Station in North Korea. There had just been a heavy snowfall in the area, and the weather was still gloomy, with no sign of sunshine.
As usual, there were very few people at the station. A group of gray sparrows fluttered overhead and then turned back, making the area even more deserted.
The train started, speeding up gradually. The rapidly rotating wheels were carrying gusts of wind and snow, and rushed towards the other side of the Yalu River.
In a carriage near the middle, Sun Jixian, acting commander of the 20th Corps of the Volunteer Army, and several of his entourage were sitting. The fat cotton military uniforms wrapped around their bodies made them all look a little bloated.
Just one day ago, Commander Yang Yong of the Volunteer Army informed Sun Jixian to return from North Korea immediately. Sun Jixian asked why he was returning to China. Yang Yong said that he didn’t know either. He only knew that the Military Commission named him and asked him to go after returning to China. Find Xiao Hua, Deputy Director of the General Political Department.
After so many years of fighting, this was the first time that Sun Jixian encountered something that the leader could not explain clearly when issuing instructions. He couldn't help but wonder secretly.
When he arrived in Beijing, Sun Jixian rushed to the headquarters and reported to Xiao Hua without taking a rest.
As soon as they met, Sun Jixian asked eagerly: "Are we going to fight again?"
Xiao Hua smiled and replied: "We won't fight this time. But the task is not as easy as fighting. ." Your 20th Corps will be transferred back soon."
Sun Jixian habitually took out his notebook from his pocket and prepared to write down the new tasks he was going to receive. Seeing this, Xiao Hua hurriedly waved to him and said, "Don't write it down in the notebook yet. Listen to what I have to say first." Experts to help us build missile test ranges, we also need to have corresponding personnel to communicate with them. There are several types of missile experts, including surface-to-ground, air-to-air, surface-to-air, shore-to-ship, and ship-to-shore. The Military Commission It has been decided to allocate troops to build a missile test range, and I will leave it to you."
In this way, Sun Jixian officially took office.
In April of the same year, in order to speed up the construction of the launch site, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Aiping and others decided after research:
To transfer a corps of the People's Liberation Army as the basis for establishing the launch site, and at the same time established The "Special Engineering Command" is headed by General Chen Shiju.
As a result, the 19th and 20th Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army immediately selected elite soldiers and generals and were ordered to set off and march south via Shanhaiguan.
Soon, the engineering troops, under the personal leadership of commander Chen Shiju, stationed in the northwest wilderness. Railway troops and special engineering troops came out of the mountains one after another and advanced westward day and night. Signal corps and motor transport troops also rushed to join forces in the northwest from all directions.
At the same time, artillery academies located in Xi'an, Chongqing, Shenyang and other places also urgently selected capable personnel to gather in Beijing. All industrial engineering universities across the country have also received orders to be ready to send top students to this construction army at any time.
For this reason, the U.S. intelligence agency, which has been tracking China's military movements, submitted an emergency report to the White House:
The 20th Corps of the Chinese Volunteer Army suddenly disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown!
Shortly thereafter, on the usually cold and lonely Gobi Desert, dark green military tents suddenly erected overnight. 100,000 officers and soldiers quickly kicked off China's journey from the desert to space.
This is the Badain Jaran Desert at the foot of the Qilian Mountains that stretches thousands of miles away. This is an extremely mysterious place that has been visited and described repeatedly by countless Easterners and Westerners.
On this mysterious territory, there is a seemingly extremely small city, Jiuquan.
According to legend, Huo Qubing, the hussar general of the Western Han Dynasty, led his troops to conquer the Xiongnu and won a great victory. After his triumph, he garrisoned in the Hexi area. In order to reward his contribution, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty specially awarded him a jar of royal wine.
In order to celebrate his victory with the soldiers, Huo Qubing poured the jar of royal wine into the mountain spring, and then scooped up the water and wine to drink with everyone. Later, in order to commemorate Huo Qubing, local people called this place "Jiuquan".
At that time, the construction troops in the desert faced extremely difficult natural conditions and living conditions.
There is an article that records:
On the vast sandy sea, there is almost nothing except a dedicated railway built by the engineering corps and a solitary expert guest house equipped with a bathhouse and a dance hall.
It was difficult to provide food, clothing, shelter and food for tens of thousands of troops, and the army agencies could only stay in a lamasery.
In 1960, the situation became even more severe. First, the Soviet Union withdrew all its experts aiding China, and then natural disasters swept the country one after another.
In the fledgling launch site, various instruments and equipment were abandoned in the indifferent sea of ??sand, and urgently needed projects were shelved. The ongoing test project was interrupted, and the main technical data and drawings of the missile were swept away by Soviet experts.
When some Soviet experts left, they left this sentence:
If China can develop its own missiles, we will come back and buy your patents.
As a result, camel thorns, Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves, wild vegetable balls, Wo Wotou dipped in salt water became the "rations" to maintain the life of this rocket force.
Due to rationed meals, lack of vegetables, and severe lack of water, many people suffer from night blindness and edema. Every step they drag their swollen legs in the sea of ??sand and every climb on the launch pad is all the effort they put in.
In addition, since the data and drawings were taken away by Soviet experts, everything had to be explored from scratch.
The scientific researchers did not have electric computers, so they had to use hand-cranked computers for calculations 24 hours a day.
Some soldiers had diarrhea due to eating Elaeagnus leaves and working on a launch pad dozens of meters high, so they had no time and no time to go to the toilet. In order to save time, they simply tied up their trouser legs with a belt and let the feces flow into their pants.
At the same time, due to confidentiality reasons, the identities and addresses of the construction army have been replaced or obscured by "mailboxes" and "numbers" one by one.
For example, they obviously live in the Jiuquan area, but their mailing address is "XX Mailbox in Lanzhou City" thousands of miles away. So when many family members went to Lanzhou to look for their sons or husbands, they searched all over Lanzhou but still found no one.
Moreover, all the units are not called by names, they are all called "numbers". For example, the base office is called "No. 10", the martyrs cemetery is called "No. 9 and a half", etc.
Even every patch of woods, every pile of mounds, every pond, and every depression there are replaced by various "numbers".
As a result, the already boring life becomes even more boring after being connected by these boring code names.
War against wind and sand engineers rushing to build railways
One night in the early summer of 1958, 6,300 railway soldiers were told the following confidentiality rules:
Do not tell anyone where to go. , you are not allowed to tell anyone what to do, and you are not allowed to communicate with your family about your address and work content.
Subsequently, they were pulled by a military column to a small station called "Qingshui" in Lanzhou and got off the bus.
At the same time, hundreds of politically and technically reliable railway employees drawn from Lanzhou, Beijing, Jinan and other railway bureaus also suddenly "disappeared" overnight and came here secretly to start The secret construction of the entire railway line was carried out.
The difficulties and hardships of building a railway in the desolate Gobi Desert can be imagined. At that time, there were no people, no water, not even a green leaf along the railway line.
A sudden black whirlwind can uproot a tent. At this time, in order to protect their nests, a dozen railway soldiers had to lie on the ground, holding on to the rope with their bodies and hands, and fighting the sandstorm.
During the meal, due to the strong wind and sand and the fact that we were in the open air, everyone had to gather together and pull up the corners of their clothes to block the incoming sand and let some people finish eating quickly before changing to others. Some people eat it.
Especially in winter, the temperature is usually between minus 30 and 40 degrees, and some locomotive crew members are so cold that the sand in their eyes can stick to one centimeter long strings. But despite this, a year later, a railway extending to the launch site was fully paved.
The paved railway has since connected various connections between the launch site and the outside world. The railway line has become the lifeline and hope line for the rocket soldiers at the base.
In order to maintain this first and only base railway leading to the outside world, thousands of railway officers and soldiers and railway employees fought against the wind and snow and endured hardship and cold. Ji Chuanxian is one of them.
Ji Chuanxian, an honest and honest railway soldier. One day in 1959, the company commander talked to him and said: "You don't need to wear this military uniform. You can become a road patrolman. I will give you a gun, 5 bullets, and a dog. Okay?" "
Ji Chuanxian saluted with a military salute and said, "Okay!" So he took off his military uniform, put on his railway uniform, and began his road patrol career.
From then on, all year round, no matter spring, summer, autumn or winter, day or night, he went out on patrol, always with the dog as his companion.
Strong winds often blow suddenly along the railway line. At this time, he would hold the dog tightly in his arms, lie down on the railway track, wait for the cyclone to pass, then get up and shake off the sand from his body, head, ears and nostrils, and continue patrolling.
Sometimes the wind and sand are too strong and the weather is too cold, the dog will lie on the inside of the railway track and will not go away no matter how you bark.
So, Ji Chuanxian took out the steamed buns he had saved from the only ration, broke off a small piece and fed it to the dog's mouth, and then asked the dog to follow him and continue to move forward. Patrol.
There is also Shi Weiliang, who is also a road patrolman. Because he lived in a tent for many years, he was surrounded by mosquitoes day and night.
You know, the mosquitoes in the Gobi Desert are surprisingly big. As someone said, 10 mosquitoes can cook a plate of vegetables. Once, after he was bitten by a mosquito, the itching was unbearable, so he scratched the skin with his hands and blood flowed out. As a result, he developed septicemia.
Due to the lack of medical treatment in the Gobi Desert and the lack of timely treatment, at the age of only 34, he left his wife and five children and lay on the railway line forever.
In order to raise their five children, his wife first unloaded trucks at the station and then worked as a garbageman in the garbage team. Later, she couldn't bear it any longer, so she left her five children and went with her husband.
Meng Chuanfa, a foreman who started working in the Aerospace Railway Works Section in May 1958. Because the "point" where he is located is desolate and lonely, there is no doctor, and there is no second woman except his lover.
So, when his lover gave birth for the first time, he had to use a pair of rusty scissors to cut the child's umbilical cord in a panic. Later, he had two more children, both of whom were delivered using local methods.
Once, he took his three children back to his hometown of Dalian to visit relatives. His grandfather and grandmother took the three children to the zoo to play. Unexpectedly, the three children pointed at all the animals in the zoo and called them "camels."
After returning home, his grandparents asked him: "Why are these children so stupid? They call everything they see a camel. Is there something wrong with their brains?"
Meng Chuanfa listened. Later, he wiped his tears and said: "It's not that the children are stupid, it's that the children have stayed in the Gobi for many years. They have never seen anything there except soldiers and camels."
At the end of 1962, Commander Sun Jixian transferred After leaving Jiuquan Base, Li Fuze served as the second commander of the base.
Li Fuze was born in Yantai, Shandong in 1914. When he was 16 years old, Li Fuze was alone in Peiping and started studying in middle school. In 1935, he went to Shanghai Daxia University to study economics.
When he graduated, he sent a telegram to his family, claiming that he needed funds to study abroad. His father immediately sent him a considerable amount of money, but he ran away to Yan'an with the money.
After the "July 7 Marco Polo Bridge Incident", he returned to his hometown in Shandong and started fighting guerrillas. After that, Li Fuze became the commander of the First Regiment of Lunan Eighth Route Army.
After the liberation war began, Li Fuze went to the Fourth Field and served as the chief of staff of the 41st Army of the Fourth Column. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he went to Guangzhou and served as deputy chief of staff of the Guangzhou Military Region.
As early as when my country's first missile launch base was established, Sun Jixian, who was appointed as the commander of the base, began to rank troops, and the first one named him was Li Fuze. Soon, Li Fuze was appointed deputy commander of the Jiuquan missile launch base.
According to the division of labor of the base party committee, he was responsible for the reception of Soviet experts.
Whenever there is an opportunity on weekends or during the week, Li Fuze always holds a bottle of wine and peanuts to drink with Soviet experts.
When the other party was drunk and in a daze, he, who was known as "drunk to death," began to ask Soviet experts this and that, "asking for advice" on missiles and missile launch-related issues.
Needless to say, at this time, the confused Soviet experts always answered every question they asked, and the answers they answered were more generous and comprehensive than usual. Therefore, drinking has become an important mission and a special part of his work.
But towards the Soviet expert himself, Li Fuze was absolutely sincere. Moreover, in order to take good care of the experts in both life and spiritual aspects, he worked hard and exhausted his brains.
For example, Soviet experts do not like to eat frozen meat and prefer to eat fresh calf meat. So, he went to the Chief of General Staff Luo Ruiqing and coaxed him to get a plane seized from the battlefield to transport goods from Lanzhou, Xi'an, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hainan Island once a week to the airport. In the expert restaurant.
Li Fuze devoted all his efforts to all the construction personnel of the base and showed tenfold love and care.
As mentioned before, the early 1960s were the most difficult years for the base. Due to lack of food, the soldiers had to go out to collect angustifolia leaves to eat.
When Li Fuze found out, he was heartbroken. He got on a plane and flew to Beijing. He broke into the home of Deputy Chief of General Staff Yang Chengwu and asked Yang Chengwu to find a way to solve the food problem for the officers and soldiers at the base.
Later, Yang Chengwu made a special report to Zhou Enlai, and the food problem was partially solved.
At the end of 1966, while building a new launch site, the Jiuquan base also accepted the tasks of overall design, equipment management, infrastructure and organization formation, management and use of satellite ground tracking observation stations.
At the same time, technical personnel from various systems and positions have also started to study in various research institutes and corresponding factories across the country.
But at this time, due to well-known reasons, Nie Rongzhen was impacted, and the leadership of the base was also quickly impacted. In Li Fuze's words, there is a feeling of chaos and leaderlessness.
On January 24, 1967, the Central Military Commission issued a special instruction to the Jiuquan Base on "not engaging in the Big Four and insisting on positive education."
Following this, the Central Military Commission issued the "Eight Orders on the Military's Carrying out "XXXXX"" to the entire army.
As a result, the officers and soldiers of the base and the base party committee united to resist all kinds of interference, maintain the stability and normal command of the troops, and maintain the normal order of test tasks and various work.
In June 1967, in order to build a national measurement and control center and observation network, the base established the Sixth Test Department. After Qiao Ping, deputy chief of staff of the base, led the survey and determined the location, successive infrastructure construction began.
In order to meet the needs of rapid, accurate, safe and confidential engineering communications and data transmission, with the approval of Vice Premier Li Fuchun of the State Council, the first phase of the satellite measurement and control system communications project overseen by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was also completed as scheduled.
This project connects the wired communication network between 7 satellite observation points and the central station, and a total of 3,663 kilometers of communication lines are planned to be built.
Furthermore, with the completion of each satellite measurement and control station, the equipment installation and debugging of various systems at the base is also in progress.
At this point, the Jiuquan launch base is beginning to take shape. Among them, the most spectacular facility is the 55-meter-high Longmen Tower No. 1.
The gantry tower has a total weight of 14,000 tons and can move slowly on heavy-duty steel rails connecting the two work stations. At the same time, another 37-meter-high fixed tower located at the launch site is used to install and fix various gas and liquid pipelines and various cables. It is called the "umbilical tower".
In addition, a new underground control room was built at the launch site, which is a hemispherical reinforced concrete structure more than 10 meters deep underground.
This kind of vault structure has a high ability to withstand external pressure. Even if the rocket explodes after takeoff, it can still ensure the safety of equipment and personnel in the underground control room.
Complete the first launch mission
On March 18, 1969, the "Dongfeng-1" rocket chief engineer Ren Xinmin led his team to the launch site.
Since April 8, the officers and soldiers of the base have conducted more than 80 days of joint training with the test team of the Ministry of Aerospace.
Through this joint training, the coordination work of the rocket and the launch system was successfully completed. At the same time, it was also a good exercise for the launch commander and operators.
On August 27, the first two-stage rocket for the expected flight test was erected on the 55-meter-high launch pad.
At that time, the international situation was very tense. The day the rocket was first erected, it alarmed the United States and the Soviet Union. At the same time, Japan, which has been closely watching the launch of China's "Dongfanghong-1" artificial satellite, is also highly nervous and wide-eyed.
In early September, the rocket began to be powered on for vertical testing. But the gyro instrument, which was fine when tested before leaving the factory, suddenly went into chaos. No matter how many times I checked, I couldn't find the source of the problem.
Twenty days passed in the blink of an eye, and the problem still could not be found. Ren Xinmin had no choice but to report it to Beijing and ask for a solution.
In the middle of the night on September 26, Qian Xuesen rushed to the launch site and personally watched the test of reproducing the fault in the vacuum box. As he watched, Qian Xuesen suddenly laughed and said, "Comrades, you didn't hold your breath!"
It turned out that after the rocket test run, the designers made a mistake while strengthening the instrument stiffness. I accidentally removed the "constant pressure valve" at the system outlet.
Therefore, after the rocket arrived at the launch site at a higher altitude, due to the low external air pressure, the gyro instrument failed to throttle, and naturally everything went wrong.
After the problem with the gyro instrument was resolved, the launch immediately returned to normal. Although the base has launched dozens of large and small missiles before, it is still very nervous about this launch.
Because this is a two-stage rocket, if the launch is successful, the "Dongfanghong-1" artificial satellite can be officially launched, or there will be a reliable prerequisite for launching the satellite.
Moreover, judging from the technical preparations and work progress speed at that time, it is entirely possible for China to launch the first artificial satellite ahead of Japan.
However, if this launch fails, the launch plan of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite will have to be postponed or even stopped. It will be possible for Japan to seize the opportunity to launch the first artificial satellite before China.
On November 15, 1969, the day before the launch, for the sake of caution, Zhou Enlai took Ren Xinmin and several key designers back to Beijing from the launch site on a special plane. The office listened to the situation report.
After listening to the report, Zhou Enlai asked in detail about the situation of the launch site and possible problems. Then he squatted on the floor with the experts and carefully reviewed the navigation area map.
The experts will not be allowed to return to the launch site until the relevant situation is fully understood and verified.
At 17:45 on November 16, after the two-stage rocket was ignited and lifted off, the program distributor of the second-stage rocket control system failed midway, causing the launch to fail.
Since then, it is said that neighboring Japan, after learning the news of China's failure, was pleasantly surprised and frantically pursued it.
On January 30, 1970, the second two-stage rocket was re-erected on the launch pad. The key to the next launch of the long-awaited "Dongfanghong-1" satellite lies in this one move.
At that time, it was the cold winter season, and the snow and wind on the Gobi Desert were biting and extremely cold, but the people watching the launch were all standing in the open air. Everyone's heart is firmly involved in the rocket that is about to take off.
With an order, the two-stage rocket roared into action. As the shocking sound of the engine gradually faded away, the rocket flew higher and higher.
At this time, what people are most worried about is whether the two-stage rocket can separate normally. Suddenly, a fireball burst into the sky. After a few seconds, the clouds and smoke dissipated, and two black spots were clearly visible.
After a while, good news came from the landing area: "The two-stage rocket separated successfully!" "The rocket hit the target with high precision!"
This launch was successful, and everyone at the base was delighted. Crazy. Because the long-awaited "Dongfanghong-1" satellite can finally be launched.
In February of the same year, the National Defense Science and Technology Commission formally issued an advance order to the base to launch the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite mission, and determined that the base would be responsible for unified command of the launch test of the satellite.
The base leadership team immediately organized and formulated the test plan and test procedures, and also issued instructions and task orders for safety and confidentiality work.
On February 4, the "Long March 1" joint training rocket set off from the Beijing assembly plant and arrived at the base a few days later.
The launch of the satellite has begun to enter the preparation stage.
On April 24, 1970, our country successfully launched its first artificial earth satellite, the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite.
So far, our country has become the fifth country to launch satellites after the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and Japan.
Since then, the Jiuquan base has successfully launched missiles, nuclear weapons and the first returnable satellite. It has also spawned Taiyuan, Xichang and other space bases, becoming a world-famous place in one fell swoop.