Now 92, Qian, who has always denied the allegations, will no doubt be watching with satisfaction as China finally prepares to send its first man into orbit, 42 years after the Soviet Union and the Americans.

Born in Shanghai in 1911, he was a brilliant student, graduating from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1934 before enrolling in Beijing's Tsinghua University for studying abroad with public funds.

In 1939, he was granted a doctor's degree in aerospace and mathematics in the United States California Institute of Technology.

Despite excelling in his field, founding the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena, and being commended by the US Air Force for his contributions, intelligence agencies in the United States were suspicious.

He was accused of harboring Communist sympathies and stripped of his security clearance in 1950, although he was never charged with espionage.

After being kept under virtual house arrest for five years, Qian returned to China in 1955 in a negotiated exchange for American pilots shot down by the Chinese during the Korean War.

He soon submitted the "Proposal of Setting up China's Aerospace Industry for National Defense" to China's State Council and developed the Titan ballistic missile program and China's first man-made earth-orbited satellite after founding the Institute of Mechanics.

An official People's Daily biography said he also directly presided over experiments on atomic bombs with short-range missiles and participated in the first development plan of interstellar aviation in China.

In 1991, he received the "State Scientist of Outstanding Contribution" award -- the highest honor that can be bestowed on a scientist in China.

He now lives in Beijing.

SPACE.WIRE