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.
02 / 03
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.
03 / 03
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.
“
We must also build artificial satellites.
Mao Zedong · Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Second Session of the Eighth Party Congress, May 1958
By the numbers
Launch
24 Apr 1970, 21:35 Beijing time, Jiuquan
Launch vehicle
Long March 1 (CZ-1)
Mass
173 kg
Orbit
439 × 2,384 km, 68.5°, 114 min period
Broadcast
'The East Is Red' at 20.009 MHz for 28 days
Status
Still in orbit (2026)
Why it mattered
Dong Fang Hong 1 announced that spaceflight would not remain a contest between two superpowers and their allies. The Long March 1 that carried it founded a rocket family that now launches crews, space stations and lunar sample-return missions, and the satellite's designers trained the generation that built Beidou, Chang'e and Tiangong. Today's Chinese space program, from its space station to its Moon ambitions, descends institutionally from this single night in the Gobi Desert.
▸At 173 kg, Dong Fang Hong 1 outweighed the first satellites of the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan combined.
▸Because the satellite was too faint to see, the Long March third stage carried a reflective 'observation skirt' that brightened it to magnitude 2–3 so Chinese citizens could watch it pass overhead.
▸Anyone with a shortwave radio tuned to 20.009 MHz could hear 'The East Is Red' from orbit; the music stopped on 14 May 1970 when the batteries died after 28 days.
▸The dead satellite never reentered and is still circling Earth more than half a century later.
▸Since 2016, China has celebrated 24 April as its national Space Day in honor of this launch.
