THE historic launch of the Shenzhou V spacecraft not only caused euphoria among the Chinese people, it also highlighted the country's perseverance in space exploration over the past 50 years.

China's first step in space technology research could be dated back to 1950s after the newly founded People's Republic of China got clear of a long series of wars.

"Let History Remember Them", a book published in 1999, collected articles written by the country's scientists who participated in research work on China's atomic bomb, missile systems and artificial satellites. The book, for the first time, gave some details of the research carried out, sometimes among great difficulties.

Home-made A-bomb

In 1956, the China Academy of Sciences set up an atomic energy institute after atomic energy was listed as the first of the country's scientific programmes.

Qian Sanqiang, who died in 1992, was one of the trail-blazers in China's atomic energy research.

He had studied and worked in Paris University for 11 years under the tutorship of the Joliot-Curies.

In an article he wrote in 1990, he said science had no national boundaries, but a scientist had his or her Motherland.

With this simple idea, he returned to China in 1948. Qian recalled that on January 14, 1955, one year before the establishment of the atomic energy institute, he and Li Siguang, China's renowned geologist were invited to Premier Zhou Enlai's office. Li and Qian respectively spoke about China's uranium resources and atomic energy research.

On the second day, the two did the same presentation for China's main State leaders such as Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De.

For better research work, the academy made all-out efforts to ensure that the best scientists from all over the country - in Shanghai, Changchun, Shenyang and other subordinate institutes - worked to support Qian's space programme.

For research on uranium, Zhang managed to get the most highly skilled workers from the Ministry of Railways and soldiers for experimental factories.

However, with the worsening of Sino-Soviet relations, the Soviet Union on June 20, 1959 announced it was suspending its assistance to China's nuclear research.

"The Soviet Union even said China could not produce its atomic bomb in 20 years without help," Qian recalled in his article.

To remember the date, China's first atomic bomb received the special code name, "596".

In 1960, Mao Zedong again called on scientists to start from the very beginning to develop China's own technology, and said China would have its own atomic bomb in eight years.

Although China suffered from famine in the early 1960s, the country finally exploded its first atomic bomb on October 16, 1964, followed by its hydrogen bomb in 1967.

While China proceeded with its atomic bomb research, its missile research also advanced under Qian Xuesen, another world-renowned scientist who returned home to China in 1955 from the US after breaking though immense resistance and suffering a five-year-long persecution by the US Government.

Honoured as "Father of China's Aerospace" and "King of Rockets", Qian was also the founding father of Engineering Control.

In a book entitled "Aerospace Heroes", the first story was about Qian Xuesen. The writer quoted Premier Zhou Enlai as saying that "... ambassador-level talks between the US and China achieve little, yet concerning Qian Xuesen's return, the talk is valuable."

Four months after he got back home he submitted a proposal to set up China's Aerospace Industry.

Commemorative hole

In 1956, he committed himself to organizing the Fifth Institute under the Ministry of National Defence - the First Rocket and Missile Research Institute - and was appointed as the institute's first president.

On November 5, 1960, China launched its first missile.

However, missile research also encountered failure when China's first home-designed intermediate range missile failed several minutes after it blasted off in 1962. The missile hit the ground leaving a huge hole which was called a "Commemorative Hole".

Seeing gloomy colleagues, Qian told them: "Failure can make us smarter."

On June 26, 1964, another missile launch was successful.

Space exploration

In 1958, one year after the former Soviet Union put the world's first artificial satellite into orbit, Mao Zedong again advocated that China should also produce its own man-made satellite. A special group was set up later that year in the China Academy of Sciences.

The work restarted in 1965 after the famine and the plan was to launch China's first artificial satellite in 1970.

In October 1965, the China Academy of Sciences held a national seminar and after a meeting lasting a total of 42 days, the experts finally reached agreement on the design of the satellite.

However, the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) swept the country in 1966 when the work was entering a critical phase.

Due to unrelenting efforts, the satellite named "Dongfanghong I" was launched on April 24, 1970 aboard a Chinese-designed Long March rocket and it orbited the Earth blasting out the song, "The East is Red".

With further research, China's rocket and satellite technology continued to mature and improve. In early 1990, China's space programme plunged to an all-time low after several failures and details about that period are still not available.

In 1992, China started its manned space programme. According to the country's "Three-Step Plan", the launch of manned spacecraft was the first goal, with the establishment of a space laboratory and a space station as the second and third goals.