Two Bombs, One Satellite was a nuclear weapon, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and artificial satellite development program by the People's Republic of China. China detonated its first fission and first thermonuclear weapons in 1964 and 1967 respectively, combined a nuclear weapon with a surface-to-surface missile in 1966, and successfully launched its first satellite in 1970.
Nie Rongzhen (left) with Chinese officials in Moscow (1957).
Yao Tongbin, a leading missile expert of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program, was beaten to death in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. He was one of the many scientists and other intellectuals who were persecuted.
The monument of the successful atomic detonation in Qinghai.
Project 596 was the first nuclear weapons test conducted by the People's Republic of China, detonated on 16 October 1964, at the Lop Nur test site. It was a uranium-235 implosion fission device made from weapons-grade uranium (U-235) enriched in a gaseous diffusion plant in Lanzhou.
The mushroom cloud from the test
Satellite image of the Lop Nur test site taken by an American KH-4 Corona intelligence satellite on 20 October 1964, 4 days after the 596 test.
Zhou Enlai announcing the success of the test.
