The honor of being immortalized by the science fiction grandmaster Arthur C Clarke was bestowed upon only few living men. Alexei Leonov is one of them. Another one died not long ago.

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Like every field of science and technology, spaceflight has its "grand old men" who got things started and give matters the required impetus. These men were not just visionaries and exceptional engineers, but, perhaps more importantly, they were gifted managers and also mastered the art of political lobbying. Inevitably, this last point may also mar their image somewhat. To get things done, they had to make arrangements with the military and dictatorial regimes.

The list of the "grand old men" of space is not very long. Wernher von Braun certainly is on it, and he illustrates the ambiguity with which history views these men.

Everyone knows Wernher von Braun, and though there is much to criticize, his achievements are also legendary.

And then, there was Sergei Korolyov. Another indubitable entry in that list, and a name that most space enthusiasts will be familiar with. 

Just as indubitably, another name belongs up there. This man is largely unknown in the West, which is totally unjustified and a deplorable sign of our Western tendency to regard only things that are said or done in the USA or in Europe as worth knowing.

While von Braun and Korolyov died decades ago (1977 and 1966, respectively) the third "grand old man" was with us until a few days ago. His name was Qian Xuesen (錢學森), and in his home country China he is regarded as a hero and father of the national space program. Qian Xuesen (the now obsolete Wade-Giles transcription of his name is "Tsien Hsue-Shen", but now the PinYin transcription is generally used. Qian is the family name, Xuesen the given name) died at age 97 on October 31, 2009 in Beijing.  

Qian studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) from 1935 and received his PhD in 1939 at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) under Theodore von Kármán (Who? One of the pioneers of modern aerodynamics, that's who!) He was a co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which started out as a rocket research institute and now is jointly operated by NASA and CalTech as the world's undisputed leader in interplanetary space research.

At the end of the war Qian traveled to Germany as part of a team of experts to salvage the extensive German wartime advances in high-speed aerodynamics and rocketry.

Towards the late 1940s, as in other periods of crisis, a latent strain of xenophobia surfaced in the US, this time coupled with a hysterical fear of communism and foreign-controlled fifth columns. This brought many careers to a premature end, including Qian's.

However, only his career in the US was cut short. Qian returned to China, there to become the key figure in the nation's budding space program. All military and civilian rockets used by China go back to Qian's original work. Westerners nowadays appear to take pride in wallowing in complete and utter scientific ignorance, but China (like most other Asian nations) is different in this respect (and we will find out soon enough - the hard way - that our ignorance is not only something that we should be ashamed of, but that it is acutely detrimental to our very future), so every educated Chinese is well aware of Qian's life and work. Every educated Chinese I have talked to, that is.   

OK, so the admiration may indeed be rather close to adulation in some cases. Big deal. I prefer that to downright ignorance any day.

So, what does Arthur C Clarke have to do with Qian Xuesen? In his novel "2010 - Odyssey 2" there are three Jupiter spaceships. The American ship is "Discovery", of the novel and movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey" fame. The Russian ship is "Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov"; it is sent to Jupiter to salvage the abandoned hulk of "Discovery". But the Chinese ship "Tsien" (which, as you now know, is the obsolete transcription of Qian Xuesen's name; the ship was named in his honour) attempts to outsmart the Russians. However, things then go awry ...

I won't tell you more, you should read it. It's a classic.

Oh, and should you be planning a mission to Jupiter in the near future, please keep in mind that "All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there."

More Information

Qian Xuesen Obituary in the Guardian (UK)

A documentary made by the Chinese state TV service CCTV on the life of Qian Xuesen (in Chinese)

 

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