The beginnings of the FSW-0 (military designation "Jianbing-1") recoverable satellite began in 1965 when Qian Xuesen conceived and proposed the idea and, after significant and tragic setbacks, finally completed it in 1974.

[9] Having returned to Mainland China from the United States after pressure from FBI and Ku Klux Klan during the Second Red Scare, "father of the Chinese missile program" Qian Xuesen began a remarkably successful career in rocket science, boosted by the reputation he garnered for his past achievements, and eventually rose through the Party's ranks to become a Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party member.

Purportedly out of his dream of crewed spaceflight but also recognizing the military value, Qian Xuesen urged the Chinese Central Planning Committee to invest in the development of recoverable satellite technologies, similar to those the United States and Soviet Union had been successfully operating since the early 1960s.

[9] Earnest work on the project began in 1965 after Jiuzhang's team submitted a preliminary analysis of requirements having toured military and civilian organizations to assess potential applications of a recoverable satellite program.

[12] Zhao Jiuzhang was killed (though some sources say he committed suicide under the pressures of persecution), Qian Xeusen was reduced to the role of a common worker, and Wang Xiji was accused of sabotaging an FSW test parachute for which he fought to prove his innocence.

As a result, many departments of the Academy were closed to include the Shuguang project, China's proposed first crewed spacecraft, which had shared much of its technology with the recoverable satellite program costing the team valuable development money and time.

[9] Only after several months of persistent attack by Mao's Red Guards did Premier of the PRC Zhou Enlai intervene to put fifteen key scientists in critical missile programs under state protection while others did their best to survive the violence.

[3] Despite the challenges and four years past its goal, the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) completed the FSW-0 satellite which weighed 1,800 kilograms and carried photographic film and two cameras intended to support both military and civilian needs.

In 1972, several technician teams were dispatched to Laiyang in Shandong, Xinhua in Hunan, Lhasa in Tibet, and Kashgar in Xinjiang to establish the nation's first satellite control, tracking, and telemetry stations.

Despite Yang's adamance that the mission should continue, the decision was made and Xian Ground Station commanded the satellite to reenter the atmosphere after only three days flight time.

[1][2][3] With observers waiting in the mountains of Sichuan, four coal miners seated in a mess hall in Guizhou Province about 400 kilometers away watched a red-hot object crash into a nearby grove of trees around noon.

[3] The microgravity experiments of the last mission tested the smelting and recrystallization of alloys and semiconductor materials including gallium arsenide and would continue as part of the larger FSW satellite program.

[19] FSW-1 5 carried, in addition to its earth-imaging payload and microgravity research equipment, a diamond-studded medallion commemorating the 100th anniversary of Chairman Mao Zedong's birth.

Although the extent of the destruction is unknown, U.S. Space Command reported that some fragments had survived the conditions of reentry that had fallen into the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Peru.

[21][24] Western news followed the updates and predictions released by Air Force Major Don Planalp of U.S. Space Command in Colorado and was concerned largely with the novel and potential dangers of heavy metal fragments striking residential areas.

[27][28] Although experts stressed the low probability that the decaying satellite would strike of in a place of significance, some governments did issue be-prepared orders to law enforcement in the case of the potential disaster, most prominently the United Kingdom's Home Office.