Theme museum marks history of China's rocket science

People visit the "Chinese Academy of Sciences and 'Two Bombs and One Satellite' Memorial" and take pictures. [Photo/beijingtimes.com.cn]

A theme memorial to feature the development course of Chinese rocket science opened to public on Saturday on the Yanqi Lake campus of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The "Chinese Academy of Sciences and 'Two Bombs and One Satellite' Memorial" is China's first museum concentrating on the country's "two bombs and one satellite" project.

The museum was rebuilt from the mysterious Chinese Academy of Sciences Huairou rocket test base, which was founded in 1958 where the Yanqi Lake campus of University of Chinese Academy of Science is now located.

The mission of the base is was exploring and developing ground test operations for high energy liquid propellants and engines for long range rockets. Information about this place was top secret decades ago.

With the museum opened to public, many names and contributions from frontier scientific and technological people involved will be disclosed to the public for the first time.

The whole pavilion, keeping its old look as a test base, is divided into three parts according to the theme, exhibiting photos and information about the history of Chinese rocket science and scientists from that generation.

The whole building group consists of three buildings, some ancillary facilities and an outdoor unit.

The "two bombs and one satellite" project is one of China's core cutting-edge science and technology projects for national defense. More than half of scientists during that time were involved in the project.