On this day in space! April 24, 1970: China launches its 1st satellite

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On April 24, 1970, China became the fifth nation to independently launch a satellite into orbit.

On April 24, 1970, China became the fifth nation to independently launch a satellite into orbit.

Russia's Saylut 1, the world's first space station, is seen during preparations for its April 19, 1971 launch in this undated photo from the Russian space agency Roscosmos. (Image credit: Wikipedia/Brücke-Osteuropa (CC0))

The name "Dong Fang Hong" translates to "The East is Red." This was also the name of a Chinese song glorifying Chairman Mao, and it was China's unofficial national anthem during the communist revolution in the 1960s. This song was broadcast from the satellite via a radio transmitter for 20 days. The success of Dong Fang Hong I made China the fifth nation to launch a satellite on a native rocket, following the Soviet Union, the U.S., France and Japan.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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