China Vitae

Biography

Wang Xiji, male, Han nationality, is a native of Dali, Yunnan Province. He graduated from Southwest China United University and received a master's from the Virginia Institute of Technology. During the 1960s Wang directed the successful development of twelve types of rockets, including meteorology, air sounding, biology and sampling rockets. He also led the formulation of the research on the overall scheme and scheme stages of China's first satellite-carrying rocket. He was also one of the founders of China's space program and the first chief designer of retrievable satellites in China.

A decade later, Wang was responsible for formulating the technical schemes of three indigenously produced retrievable satellites. In the late 1980s, Wang also satisfactorily completed China's first space scientific experiment – a satellite-carrying microgravity experiment task.

Wang was a leader in addressing the use of China's space resources. He advanced the argument that in order to develop substance and energy source-based space resources, the development of manned spaceflight was needed. He also advocated and developed engineering design science and satellite design science using China's then current technology.

Wang served as an advisor and researcher at the China Space Technology Research Institute.