The expression 'launching satellites' (,

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: 'fang weixing'), alternatively translated as "putting satellites into orbit", refers to a socialist construction campaign that began in 1958 during the " Great Leap Forward" and was anxious for success by 1959. During the Great Leap Forward, exaggeration was prevalent throughout China, with false reports exaggerating food production, and these false reports of "wheat satellites", "rice satellites", "grain satellites", "tobacco satellites", and other similar acts in various industries were unanimously called "Launching Satellites". The term "launching satellites" was coined in honor of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite launched by the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. China successfully launched a sounding rocket in 1964 and the satellite

Dong Fang Hong I ''Dong Fang Hong 1'' (), in the western world also known as China 1 or PRC 1, was the first space satellite of the People's Republic of China (PRC), launched successfully on 24 April 1970 as part of the PRC's Dongfanghong space satellite prog ...

in 1970.

References

1950s in China Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party Economic history of the People's Republic of China Great Leap Forward {{China-hist-stub

See also

References