"Global Space Age" Visits Qian Xuesen Museum

Dec 4 2015

Just before the Thanksgiving break, students from Professor Alexander Geppert’s course The Global Space Age, paid a visit to the Qian Xuesen Library and Museum, dedicated to the memory of Qian Xuesen (1911–2009), the father of Chinese aerospace technology. The aerospace engineer became known as the architect of China's first satellite and ballistic missile programs.

The library and museum is located immediately outside the Shanghai Jiaotong University campus where Qian Xuesen studied in the 1930s. On display are an extensive collection of historical artifacts connected to the Qian Xuesen, which was kindly supplemented by the museum staff, Qiu Wenjia and Zhang Wenjun by giving the class a tour. 

A total of 84,500 documents and historical objects are held by the museum and library, of which about 15,000 are on public display.  The collection includes academic publications, notes, and manuscripts from his time spent at universities in both Shanghai and the United States. There were also personal items, such as letters and photographs with Communist Party leaders after his return to China in 1955. Also on display were his collection of books, newspapers, and article clippings. 

The visiting students from the Global Space Age class were particularly surprised to find many artifacts in the collection that offered them a very personal glimpse into Qian Xuesen's life, such as his test papers and reports cards from Jiaotong and Caltech, and even his newspaper collection on UFOs. The exhibition also included the products of Qian Xuesen's work, including a Dongfeng Intercontinental Ballistic Missile donated by the People’s Liberation Army to the museum and models of spacecraft like the Shenzhou 1. 

(Text by: Xavier Ante, Photo by: Kejie "Effie" Wang)