Dong Fang Hong 1 — China's first satellite

Night had settled over the Gobi Desert on 24 April 1970 when, at 9:35 p.m. Beijing time, a Long March 1 rocket rose from the Jiuquan launch complex carrying China's first satellite. Thirteen minutes later Dong Fang Hong 1 was in orbit, and tracking stations began picking up the tune it carried: an electronic rendition of 'The East Is Red,' the anthem that gave the satellite its name, broadcast at 20.009 megahertz where any shortwave listener on the planet could find it.

The satellite was a 72-faced metal polyhedron about a metre across, spin-stabilized and weighing 173 kilograms, more than the first satellites of the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan combined. It circled Earth every 114 minutes on a 439 by 2,384 kilometre orbit inclined 68.5 degrees. Knowing the satellite itself would look faint from the ground, engineers fitted the rocket's third stage with a reflective 'observation skirt' that deployed after separation, brightening it to second or third magnitude so ordinary citizens could step outside and watch their satellite cross the sky.

The batteries were sized for twenty days and lasted twenty-eight; the music fell silent on 14 May 1970, but the satellite never came down and still circles Earth today. The launch fulfilled a goal Mao Zedong had declared in May 1958, months after Sputnik, and made China the fifth nation to reach orbit with its own rocket. The country has never stopped marking the moment: since 2016, 24 April has been celebrated as China's national Space Day.