Qian Xuesen – Father of China’s Rocket and Space Program. To use my knowledge to change Chinese people destiny – I want Chinese people to possess her own nuclear bomb and missles despite the controversy – I personally think – We are preparing against aggression*** – not owning a sword and has a sword and not using it is an entirely different matter.”

***United States “China containment policy” since 1949, known as “Asia Pivot” or “Freedom of Navigation” since Obama Administration is to engage in provocation activities in China’s territorial water or at China’s door steps to stop China’s rise

Qian Xuesen 钱学森: “用我的知識來改變中國人的命運 – 我想中國人擁有她自己的核彈和飛彈 – 儘管它的存在性帶來質疑和爭議 – 我個人認為 – 我們正準備反抗侵略 – 手上沒有劍和手上有劍而不使用它 不是一回事. 美國自1949年以來圍堵中國政䇿,從奧巴馬總統行政時代稱亞洲再平衡也稱自由航行，目的是在中國領海或國家門前進行挑釁阻止中國崛起。

Qian Xuesen 钱学森 The Movie 钱学森 Hsue-shen Tsien 高清国语中英双字
https://youtu.be/rDXrDXuDp9E

Qian Xuesen 钱学森 – Father of China’s Rocket and Space Program

Qian Xuesen (simplified Chinese: 钱学森; traditional Chinese: 錢學森; pinyin: Qián Xuésēn; Wade–Giles: Ch’ien Hsüeh-sęn) (11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009) was a scientist who made important contributions to the missile and space programs of both the United States and People’s Republic of China. Historical documents in the U. S. commonly refer to him with the earlier family-name last spelling, Hsue-Shen Tsien or H.S. Tsien.[1]

During the 1940s Qian was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory[2] at the California Institute of Technology. During the Second Red Scare of the 1950s, the United States government accused Qian of having communist sympathies, and he was stripped of his security clearance[3] in 1950. Qian then decided to return to China, but instead was detained at Terminal Island[4] near Los Angeles. After spending 5 years under virtual house arrest,[5] Qian was released in 1955, in exchange for the repatriation of American pilots captured during the Korean War. Notified by U.S. authorities that he was free to go, Qian immediately arranged his departure, leaving for China in September 1955, on the passenger liner SS President Cleveland of American President Lines, via Hong Kong. He returned to lead the Chinese rocket program, and became known as the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” (or “King of Rocketry”).[6]

He is also the cousin of the mechanical engineer Hsue-Chu Tsien and his son (first cousin once removed) is the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry winner Roger Y. Tsien. Asteroid 3763 Qianxuesen and the ill-fated space ship Tsien in the science fiction novel 2010: Odyssey Two are named after him.

Early life and education

Qian Xuesen (Wade–Giles: Ch’ien Hsüeh-sęn) was born in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, 180 km southwest of Shanghai. He left Hangzhou at the age of three, when his father obtained a post in the Ministry of Education in Beijing. Qian graduated from Chiao Tung University (now spelled Jiao Tong) in Shanghai in 1934 and received a degree in mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on railroad administration; he then spent an internship at Nanchang Air Force Base. In August 1935 Qian left China on a Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Master of Science degree from MIT a year later.

While at MIT he was influenced by the methods of American engineering education, and its focus on experimentation. Qian’s experiments included the plotting of plot pressures, using mercury filled manometers. (By contrast, most engineers in China at this time were not the “hands on” type; instead, theoretical studies were preferred.) Qian sought a school where his mathematical skills would be appreciated, and went to the California Institute of Technology to pursue his studies under Theodore von Kármán. Qian earned his doctorate from Caltech in 1939 with a thesis on slender body theory at high speeds. He would remain on the Caltech faculty until his departure for China in 1955, becoming the Robert H. Goddard Professor of Jet Propulsion in 1949, and establishing a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States.[7]

It was shortly after arriving at Caltech in 1936 that Qian was attracted to the rocketry ideas of Frank Malina, other students of von Kármán, and their associates, including Jack Parsons. Around Caltech the dangerous and explosive nature of their work earned them the nickname “Suicide Squad.”[7]

Career in the United States

In 1943, Qian and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory; it was a proposal to the Army for developing missiles in response to Germany’s V-2 rocket. This led to the Private A, which flew in 1944, and later the Corporal, the WAC Corporal, and other designs.

After World War II he served under von Kármán as a consultant to the United States Army Air Force, and commissioned with the assimilated rank of colonel. Von Kármán and Tsien both were sent by the Army to Germany to investigate the progress of wartime aerodynamics research. Qian investigated research facilities and interviewed German scientists including Wernher von Braun and Rudolph Hermann.[8] Von Kármán wrote of Qian, “At the age of 36, he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion.”[2] The American journal Aviation Week & Space Technology would name Qian its Person of the Year in 2007, and comment on his interrogation of von Braun, “No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program.”[9]

During this time, Colonel Qian worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the X-20 Dyna-Soar, which itself would later influence the development of the American Space Shuttle.

Qian Xuesen married Jiang Ying (蒋英), a famed opera singer and the daughter of Jiang Baili (蒋百里) and his wife, Japanese nurse Satô Yato. The elder Jiang was a military strategist and adviser to Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek. The Qians were married on September 14, 1947 in Shanghai, and would have two children; their son Qian Yonggang was born in Boston on October 13, 1948, while their daughter Qian Yungjen was born in early 1950, when the family was residing in Pasadena.[10]

Shortly after his wedding, Qian returned to America, to take up a teaching position at MIT; Jiang Ying would join him in December 1947.[11] In 1949, upon the recommendation of von Kármán, Qian became the first director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech.[7]

Imprisonment

In 1949,when he was applying for naturalization[12], allegations were made that he was a communist, and his security clearance was revoked in June 1950.[5] The Federal Bureau of Investigation located an American Communist Party document from 1938 with his name on it, and used it as justification for the revocation. Without clearance, Qian found himself unable to pursue his career, and within two weeks announced plans to return to mainland China, which had come under the government of Communist leader Mao Zedong. After Qian’s plans became known, the U.S. government detained him at Terminal Island, an isolated U.S. Navy facility and federal prison near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The Undersecretary of the Navy at the time, Dan A. Kimball, tried to keep Qian in the U.S., commenting:

“It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go.”[3]

Release and exile

Qian became the subject of five years of secret diplomacy and negotiation between the U.S. and China. During this time he lived under constant surveillance with the permission to teach without any research (classified) duties.[5] Qian found himself in conflict with both the FBI and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and at one point was arrested for allegedly smuggling secret documents out of the US; these ultimately turned out to be simple logarithmic tables. During his incarceration, Qian received support from his colleagues at Caltech, including the institute’s president Lee DuBridge, who flew to Washington to argue Qian’s case. Caltech appointed attorney Grant Cooper to defend Qian. Later, Cooper would say, “That the government permitted this genius, this scientific genius, to be sent to Communist China to pick his brains is one of the tragedies of this century.”[13]

Career in China

Qian, exiled to China, had a successful career there, leading and becoming the father of the Chinese missile program with the construction of China’s Dongfeng ballistic missiles and the Long March space rockets. A book about this scientist’s life was written by Iris Chang, entitled Thread of the Silkworm.

Return to China

In 1979 Qian was awarded Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In the early 1990s the filing cabinets containing Qian’s research work were offered to him by Caltech. Most of these works became the foundation for the Qian Library at Xi’an Jiaotong University while the rest went to the Institute of Mechanics. Qian eventually received his award from Caltech, and with the help of his friend Frank Marble brought it to his home in a widely-covered ceremony. Qian was also invited to visit the US by AIAA after the normalization of Sino-US relationship, but he refused the invitation, having wanted a formal apology for his detention. In a 2002 published reminiscence, Marble stated that he believed that Qian had “lost faith in the American government” but that he had “always had very warm feelings for the American people.”[14]

Qian retired in 1991 and maintained a low public profile in Beijing, China.

The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 with much help from Russia (due to their extended history in space) and used Qian’s research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October 2003. The elderly Qian was able to watch China’s first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, in his novel 2010: Odyssey Two, named a Chinese spaceship after him.

Later life

In his later years, since the 1980s, Qian advocated scientific investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Qigong and “special human body functions”. Some people claim that Qian actually did not spend his effort[clarification needed] on qigong, but that he just expressed that people should consider the widely practiced qigong in a scientific manner. He particularly encouraged scientists to accumulate observational data on qigong for the establishment of future theories.[15]

From the early 1980s he studied in a number of areas, and created systematics, contributed on science and technology system and somatic science, thinking science, natural sciences, engineering science, literature and art, military science, systems science, geography science, social science, and education.

Advanced the concepts, theory and method on system science: open complex giant system, from qualitative to quantitative integration of Hall for Workshop of comprehensive and integrated system,[16][17] and opened up a Chinese school of the Science of Complexity. Organizated scientific seminars and train successors.[18]

In 2008, he was named Aviation Week and Space Technology Person of the Year. This selection is not intended as an honour but is given to the person judged to have the greatest impact on aviation in the past year.[2][19]

In 2008, China Central Television named Qian as one of the eleven most inspiring people in China.[20] He died at the age of 97 on October 31, 2009 in Beijing.[21][22]

In July 2009, the Omega Alpha Association named Qian (H. S. Tsien) one of four Honorary Members in the international systems engineering honor society.[23]

A Chinese film production 钱学森 预告片 （陈坤主演） Qian Xue Sen directed by Zhang Jianya stars Zhang Tielin as Qian Xue to be release on 11 December 2011 in both Asia and North America.

OBITUARY

November 1, 2009

Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory By Claire Noland

Qian Xuesen, seen in 1948, a Chinese-born aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was credited with leading China to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, Silkworm anti-ship missiles, weather and reconnaissance satellites and to put a human in space in 2003. (Associated Press)

Deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist, the aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech became known as the father of China’s space and missile programs.

Qian Xuesen, a former Caltech rocket scientist who helped establish the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before being deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist and who became known as the father of China’s space and missile programs, has died. He was 98.

Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, died Saturday in Beijing, China’s state news agency reported. The cause was not given.

Honored in his homeland for his “eminent contributions to science,” Qian was credited with leading China to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, Silkworm anti-ship missiles, weather and reconnaissance satellites and to put a human in space in 2003.

The man deemed responsible for these technological feats also was labeled a spy in the 1999 Cox Report issued by Congress after an investigation into how classified information had been obtained by the Chinese.

Qian, a Chinese-born aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a protege of Caltech’s eminent professor Theodore von Karman, who recognized him as an outstanding mathematician and “undisputed genius.”

Qian’s research contributed to the development of “jet-assisted takeoff” technology that the military began using in the 1940s.

He was the founding director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech and a member of the university’s so-called Suicide Squad of rocket experimenters who laid the groundwork for testing done by JPL.

But his brilliant career in the United States came to a screeching halt in 1950, when the FBI accused him of being a member of a subversive organization. Qian packed up eight crates of belongings and set off for Shanghai, saying he and his wife and two young children wanted to visit his aging parents back home. Federal agents seized the containers, which they claimed contained classified materials, and arrested him on suspicion of subversive activity.

Qian denied any Communist leanings, rejected the accusation that he was trying to spirit away secret information and initially fought deportation. He later changed course, however, and sought to return to China.

Five years after his arrest, he was shipped off in an apparent exchange for 11 American airmen captured during the Korean War.

“I do not plan to come back,” Qian told reporters. “I have no reason to come back. . . . I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness.”

Welcomed as a national hero in China, where the Communist regime had defeated the Nationalist forces, Qian became director of China’s rocket research and was named to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. China, whose scientific development lagged during the Communist revolution, quickly began making strides.

Qian was born in the eastern city of Hangzhou, and in 1934 graduated from Jiaotong University in Shanghai, where he studied mechanical engineering. He won a scholarship to MIT and, after earning a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering there, continued his doctoral studies at Caltech.

He taught at MIT and Caltech and, having received a security clearance, served on the Scientific Advisory Board that advised the U.S. military during and after World War II.

Sent to Germany to interrogate Nazi scientists, Qian interviewed rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. As the trade magazine Aviation Week put it in 2007, upon naming Qian its person of the year, “No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program.”

Qian returned to Caltech in 1949 and a year later faced the accusation by two former members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s “Red Squad” that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.

He admitted that while a graduate student in the 1930s he had been present at social gatherings organized by colleagues who also were accused of party membership, but he denied any political involvement.

Few can agree on the question of whether Qian was a spy. An examination of the papers Qian packed away failed to turn up any classified documents. Colleagues at Caltech firmly stood behind him, and he continued to do research there after he lost his security clearance. In fact, the university gave him its distinguished alumni award in 1979 in recognition of his pioneering work in rocket science.

Although federal officials started deportation procedures in 1950, he was prevented from leaving the country because it was decided that he knew too much about sensitive military matters that could be of use to an enemy.

For years, Qian was in a sort of limbo, being watched closely by the U.S. government and living under partial house arrest. Eventually he quit fighting his expulsion and actively worked to return to China. Some associates said that he was insulted because his loyalty to this country was questioned and that he initially wanted to clear his name.

Once he returned home in 1955, he threw himself into his research with what some saw as calculated revenge.

“It was the stupidest thing this country ever did,” former Navy Secretary Dan Kimball later said, according to Aviation Week. “He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go.”

Qian survived the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when many Chinese intellectuals lost their positions, probably because his scientific research and development for military purposes was considered too vital to suspend.

He is said to have supported the government’s crushing of the rebellion in Tiananmen Square in 1989. And he never returned to the United States.

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

claire.noland@latimes.com

Notes

钱学森：历尽险阻报效祖国 火箭之王淡泊名誉，人民网，2009年10月31日.Accessed Oct. 31, 2009; (Chinese) 美国航空周刊2008年度人物:钱学森．网易探索(广州)（2009年10月31日）. Accessed Nov. 11, 2009.

7. a b c http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/history/index.html
8. Chang, p109-117.
9. Noland, Claire (2009-01-11). “Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory”. Los Angeles Times.
10. Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm, p. 139 (wedding), p. 141 (birth of son), p. 153 (birth of daughter)
11. Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm, p. 139-140
12. http://pec.jstu.edu.cn/physics/physicist/%E9%92%B1%E5%AD%A6%E6%A3%AE/%E9%92%B1%E5%AD%A6%E6%A3%AE.html
13. Naval War College China’s Nuclear Force Modernization
14. Tsien Revisited
15. 钱学森：创建系统学(新世纪版)，上海交通大学出版社
16. 钱学森：论系统工程(新世纪版)，上海交通大学出版社
17. http://www.stdaily.com/kjrb/content/2010-10/24/content_239983.htm
18. Hold Your Fire, Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 168., No. 1, January 7, 2008, p. 8.
19. Person of the Year, Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 168., No. 12, March 24, 2008, p. 22
20. “China’s “father of space technology” dies at 98″. Xinhua. 2009-10-31. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
21. Noland, Claire (1 November 2009), Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Los Angeles Times
22. http://www.omegalpha.org/honorarymembers.html

Sources

Chang, Iris (1995). Thread of the Silkworm. Perseus Books Group. ISBN 978-0-465-08716-7.
O’Donnell, Franklin (2002). JPL 101. California Institute of Technology. JPL 400-1048.
Harvey, Brian (2004). China’s Space Program: From Conception to Manned Spaceflight. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-1-85233-566-3.

钱学森（1911年12月11日－2009年10月31日），浙江杭州人，中国空气动力学家，中国科学院、中国工程院院士，中国两弹一星功勋奖章获得者之一。曾任美国麻省理工学院教授、加州理工学院教授，为中美两国的导弹和航天计划都曾作出过重大贡献。被誉为“中国航天之父”和“火箭之王”。[1][2] 曾担任中国人民政治协商会议第六、七、八届全国委员会副主席、中国科学技术协会名誉主席等职务。

生平

早年

1911年12月11日生于杭州[3][4][5][6]（现下城区马市街方谷园2号钱学森故居）[7]（或云上海[8]），出身于吴越钱氏家族，父亲钱家治。
1914年父亲钱家治到北平民国政府教育部任职，迁居北平宣武门外。
1918年入学北京第二实验小学。
1921年转入北京高等师范学院第一附小。
1923年钱学森入学北京高等师范学院附中。
1929年秋，钱学森入国立交通大学机械工程系铁路门（该门系后来的上海铁道大学机械和电气工程系，2000年并入同济大学），攻读蒸汽机车工程。
1934年毕业于国立交通大学。8月，赴南京中央大学参加清华大学庚款留美公費生考试。10月成为20名留美公費生之一。
1935年钱学森在清华大学导师空气动力学教授王士倬指导下到南京的航空工厂和南昌的航空学院进行为期一年的实地考察，决定未来留美的学习方向。王士倬原毕业于美国麻省理工学院，建议钱学森入麻省理工学院进修空气动力学。

赴美留學進修

1935年9月，钱学森等20名庚款留美公費生，从上海搭乘杰克逊总统号轮船，赴美国西雅图。
1936年获得美国麻省理工学院硕士学位后，到加州理工学院求见空气动力学权威西奥多·冯·卡门教授，征求进修意见。冯·卡门建议钱学森入加州理工学院研究院进修。同年秋，入加州理工学院研究院，师从冯·卡门。
1938年钱学森和冯·卡门合作，发表重要论文《可压缩流体的边界层》、《倾斜旋转体的超音速流》。
1939年获得加州理工学院博士学位。八月发表重要论文《可压缩流体的二维亚音速流》阐明压力修正公式，后被学界称为钱-卡门公式。因对空气动力学的研究作出重大贡献位列美国陆军航空兵上校。
1940年加入加州理工学院火箭研制组，研究火箭固体燃料、结构变形等课题。
1941年参与风洞研制。
1942年发表论文《风洞的汇聚风斗之设计》
1943年美军情报部探知德军正在德国境内建立大规模的火箭发射基地，火速拨款成立加州理工学院喷气推进实验室，下设弹道、材料、喷气、结构四组。钱学森任喷气研究组组长，成为世界知名的火箭喷气推进专家。
1944年美国国防部聘冯·卡门为美国空军顾问，草拟未来20年美国太空研究的蓝图。冯·卡门特约钱学森到华盛顿参加他领导的国防部科学顾问小组。1944年冬，钱学森辞去在加州理工学院担任的各项职务，到华盛顿参加国防部科学顾问组。
1945年4月，美国国防部派遣以冯·卡门为首、团员包括钱学森在内的调查组，飞往德国，询问德国火箭科学家。钱学森亲自询问德国火箭科学家包括沃纳·冯·布劳恩、鲁道夫·赫曼。冯·布劳恩应钱学森的要求，写出书面报告《德国液态火箭研究与展望》。钱学森还视察隐蔽在不伦瑞克市郊松林中德军绝密的戈林空气动力学研究所和德国其他地方的风洞，撰写多份报告。冬，钱学森由助教晋升为副教授。
1946年发表论文《超等空气动力学》、《超等空气动力学，稀薄气体力学》，主编《喷气推进的新天地》论文集。八月，应聘麻省理工学院，辞去加州理工学院和喷气推进实验室所有职务。
1947年晋升为麻省理工学院正教授。9月，與声乐家蒋英在上海結婚。
1949年10月申请加入美国国籍。同年应聘为加州理工学院正教授，并出任加州理工学院古根海姆喷气推进研究中心主任[9]，领导美国太空火箭的研究。

移民監獄關押

中華人民共和國在1949年10月成立後，錢學森立即向美國移民局提出了入籍歸化的申請[10][11]。由于美國在1950年麦卡锡主义盛行，反共思想高涨，而FBI又从美国共产党的文件中发现钱学森曾与周恩来特使接触以及参加过共产党外围组织的一些活动。于是驳回其入籍申请，并禁止其参加机密工作。[12][13]钱学森无法继续他的研究。两星期后钱学森先告知學校其去中國探親數月之意願，學校並無異議且願意配合。但是當時海軍部次長丹·金波尔知道後，认为以錢學森涉及美軍機密工作之深，在當時中美蘇關係惡劣狀況之下，應設法勸阻其訪中為宜。联邦调查局仅凭钱学森早年參加過的共产党组织社交餐会出席人士名单，指控他在入籍申请中故意否认曾加入共产党外围组织不报。司法部藉“伪证”罪吊销他的机密工作许可并将他驱逐出境。[14] 美国司法部于于1950年8月30日將钱学森临时收押在特米诺岛（Terminal Island）的监狱里15天[15][16][17][18]。由于加州理工学院的不懈努力和抗争，錢學森很快被取保候審。为了避免被驱逐出境，钱学森重金聘請紐約市知名辯護律師Grant Cooper代表出庭，与美国移民局展开了长达5年的法庭鬥爭。[19] 金波尔知道司法部的行動後也表示震驚：“我的意思不是要逮捕他，太可怕了，他不是共产党，我们不应当监禁他。”[20]“这是这个国家干过的最蠢的事。他不是共產黨正如我不是共产党，而我们强迫他离开了。”[21] 錢學森的移民上訴案件直到1954年才被判敗訴。在上诉五年期间，錢學森只能涉及一些基础学科的研究与教学。聯調局认为钱学森所知的机密信息五年后就会变得过时而没有用处。他在这段时间里完成了工程控制论的研究。钱学森后来幽默地说，“不让我做研究，我会在这里（用手指头）发展”。在中美关系正常化后，钱獲頒傑出校友獎受到加州理工學院邀请，但卻因美政府遞解出境令仍然有效而無法入境。該獎項後於2001年由加州理工學院好友法蘭克·馬波教授及夫人送達錢學森家中（馬波教授於1955年錢學森離美時親自去洛杉矶港口送行）。[22] 航空週刊在提名錢學森為2007風雲人物的專文，對這段歷史的記述也大致吻合。

交換歸國

1955年，在中、美政府长达几个月的日内瓦双边会谈之后，钱学森被美国政府释放[23]，用以交换在朝鲜战争中被俘的美国飞行员。9月17日，钱学森登上了美国总统轮船公司（American President Lines）的克利夫兰总统号（Pres. Cleveland）经香港于10月8日折返中国。
1956年与钱伟长、郭永怀等创建、主持中国科学院力学研究所，为首任所长。
1956年10月，钱学森受命组建中国第一个火箭导弹研制机构，并任该机构（国防部第五研究院）院长[15]，指導計畫協調技術。1958年開始研製航天運載火箭。
1958年与中国科学院同事共同倡议并参与创建中国科学技术大学。
1959年8月，钱学森加入中国共产党。
1960年「東風一號」近程地地彈道導彈發射成功。1965年人造衛星工程開始實施，1970年4月，中国第一顆人造衛星「東方紅一號」發射成功。他为建设中国火箭弹道和航天事业作出了极大贡献。
1967年冯·卡门在1967年出版的自传中，特闢一章：“钱学森與紅色中國”[24]。冯·卡门对钱学森的评语：“美国火箭领域中最伟大的天才之一，我的杰出学生”。
晚年的活動及成就
1979年，钱学森被加州理工大学授予“杰出校友奖”。[6]但卻因美政府遞解出境令仍然有效而無法入境接受奖项。
1986年6月27日，中国科协三大会议选举钱学森担任科协主席。[6]
1991年被国务院和中共中央军委授予“国家杰出贡献科学家”的称号和一级英模奖章。
1996年4月8日，交通大学建校百年典礼上，唯一经钱学森本人同意，江泽民题写馆名的钱学森图书馆在西安交通大学落成揭幕。
1999年9月，與錢三強、鄧稼先等共23人榮獲兩彈一星功勳獎章。
2005年温家宝总理在看望钱学森时，钱曾这样感慨：回过头来看，这么多年培养的学生，还没有哪一个的学术成就能跟民国时期培养的大师相比！钱认为：“现在中国没有完全发展起来，一个重要原因是没有一所大学能够按照培养科学技术发明创造人才的模式去办学，没有自己独特的创新的东西，老是‘冒’不出杰出人才。“当代国内大学为什么培养不出大师级人才？”是为引发教育界广泛热议的“钱学森之问”。
2006年10月，与任新民、屠守锷、黄纬禄、梁守槃等共5位专家获“中国航天事业五十年最高荣誉奖”。
2008年9月13日钱学森塑像在中国科学技术大学落成。[25]
2009年10月31日上午8时6分在北京死亡。[3][26][27][28]
2011年12月11日钱学森诞辰100周年之际，位于上海交通大学徐汇校区的钱学森图书馆正式建成对外开放。
家庭

父：钱家治（1880年－1969年）
母：章兰娟
岳父：蒋百里
妻：蒋英
子：钱永刚：（1948年-）长期从事计算机应用软件系统的研制工作，高级工程师，西安交通大学兼职教授。
女：钱永真
堂侄：钱永佑，神经生物学家，斯坦福大学教授。钱永健，2008年，諾貝爾化學獎得主。

轶事

小行星3763
小行星3763被命名为“钱学森”。
军衔
在美期间，曾被授予美国空军上校军衔[3]；传记作家叶永烈在查证了中华人民共和国将帅录后，认为钱学森未被授予过中将军衔。[29]
1999年美国国会考克斯报告的指控
1999年美国国会考克斯报告（英语：Cox Report）（Cox Report）中专门有一节题为“钱学森在中国导弹与空间计划发展中的作用”[30]，声称钱学森为“间谍”[27]。钱学森传记作者张纯如对这一指控予以了驳斥[31]。
2010年钱学森实验室遭遇被强拆
7月22日至23日，北京新園區力學研究所試驗基地再遭持续地肆意毁坏，此次试验基地被毁，初步统计的国有资产直接损失高达1700余万元。[32]
争议

“万斤亩”公案

钱学森在1958年大跃进时，自己不是农业家，也并没有认真具体去试验，自己也没有百分之百地种出亩产万斤，而是在假设，在《中国青年报》将他在一次“科学与人文”座谈会上的讲话与在《知识就是力量》杂志发表的《农业中的力学问题——亩产万斤不是问题》[33] 的文章整理成《粮食亩产会有多少？》发表[34][35]，文章中表示“农业生产的最终极限决定于每年单位面积上的太阳光能”：假设植物光合作用30%的效率可以达到，并假设植物中的1/5能转换为可吃的粮食，认为只要必需的水利、肥料、劳力等等条件能满足，那么粮食产量的不断提高是没有问题的，甚至可达到“2000斤的20多倍”。有人认为，这些论述为“放卫星”提供了“科学论证”，并影响了最高决策[36]。李銳《反思大躍進》曾記載田家英問毛澤東：“你也不是沒當過農民，你應當知道畝產萬斤是不可能的。”毛澤東說：“這是我看了大科學家錢學森的文章，才相信的。”钱学森后来辩解称他所提出的产量数字明确指“计算的单位面积年产量，无论粮食或是木材都是理想的极限量。要接近这个指标，必须解决”一系列问题。[13]

钱学森在1993年给友人的一封信中进一步辩解，“如百分之百地用空气中的CO2和从根吸取的水合成碳水化合物，则每亩地每年有190-320吨。光合作用的能量效率可达50%，而粮粒只占全部产物的1/3，故理想最高年亩产是32-53吨。说亩产万斤，才5吨，远远小于理想数。”并认为充分发挥科学技术的力量是能够实现的。[35] 钱学森是我国航天事业的奠基人，也是享誉海内外的杰出科学家。但他在专业之外的一些见解，有的很有争议，甚至遭到激烈的批评。其中最突出的，大概就是被视为1958年浮夸风“推手”的所谓“万斤亩”公案了。本文作者叶永烈先生在为钱学森写作传记时，采访了诸多当事人，详细考证了这段公案的来龙去脉，得出了自己的一家之言：钱学森早在人民日报放第一颗“高产卫星”之前，就已开始研究粮食亩产问题，发表了若干篇文章，但他的研究只是针对农业发展远景所做的科学展望或理论推算，将钱学森的理论推算与“高产卫星”联系起来、引起毛泽东注意的，是中国青年报发表的一篇文章，但这篇文章并非钱学森亲笔所写。在调查过程中，钱学森之子钱永刚教授向作者提供了钱学森保存的关于“万斤亩”的剪报以及1993年钱学森谈论“万斤亩”的一封从未公开发表的信件，这封信表明，钱学森一直到1993年仍然坚持他当年对粮食亩产的推算。今揭载于此，以飨读者。

人体特异功能和气功

1980年代后，钱学森提倡对人体特异功能和气功的研究。并著有专著《人体科学与现代科学纵横谈》、《论人体科学》和《创建人体科学》等。1980年6月4日，钱学森接受《自然杂志》访问，支持人体特异功能的研究。他说：“一项新的科学研究，在刚提出的时候，总是有人反对，带头的人也总是要受到反对，因此要有勇气。要挺住腰板。”在谈话中，他首次提出了“人体科学”这个概念。1982年5月5日，钱学森给中宣部副部长郁文写信，“以党性保证人体特异功能是真的，不是假的。”1986年5月，人体科学研究会代表大会在京举行。钱学森作《人体科学研究的战略》的发言，说人体科学“和共产主义有相似之处。千万不要认为是个简单的事情，这涉及到人的思想，意识的革命。”“是一场真正的文化革命。”1987年5月3日，中国人体科学学会成立。钱学森为名誉理事长，张震寰为理事长。[37]
论著

论文

Tsien HS. Two-dimensional subsonic flow of compressible fluids // Aeronaut. Sci. 1939
Von Karman T, Tsien HS. The buckling of thin cylindrical shells under axial compression. J Aeronaut Sci 1941
Tsien, HS. Symmetrical Joukowsky Airfoils in shear flow. Q. Appl. Math.1943
Tsien, HS. On the Design of the Contraction Cone for a Wind Tunnel. J. Aeronaut. Sci., 10, 68-70, 1943
Von Karman, T. and Tsien, HS. Lifting- line Theory for a Wing in Nonuniform Flow. Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, Vol. 3, 1945
Tsien, HS. Similarity laws of hypersonic flows. J. Math. Phys. 25, 247-251, (1946).
Tsien, HS , and Kuo, YH , “Two-Dimensional Irrotational. Mixed Subsonic and Supersonic Flow of a Compressible Fluid and the Upper Critical Mach dumber”, NACA Technical Note No. 495, 1946
Tsien, HS. Rockets and Other Thermal Jets Using Nuclear Energy”, The Science and Engineering of Nuclear Power, Addison-Wesley Vol.11, 1949
Tsien, HS. The transfer functions of rocket nozzles. J. Am. Rocket Soc, 1952
Tsien, HS. Take-Off from Satellite Journal of the American. Rocket Society, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1953
Tsien, HS. The Poincare-Lighthill-Kuo Method, Advances in Appl. Mech. 1956
Tsien, HS. The equations of gas dynamics. 1958
钱学森，于景元，戴汝为. 一个科学新领域–开放的复杂巨系统及其方法论. 自然杂志. 1990 (1).

著作

Engineering Cybernetics，Tsien, H. S. McGraw Hill, 1954
Tsien, H.S. Technische Kybernetik, Übersetzt von Dr. H. Kaltenecker, Berliner Union Stuttgart 1957
ТЕХНИЧЕСКАЯ　КИБЕРНЕТИКА
工程控制论.科学出版社. 1956. ISBN 9787110011966
工程控制论（第2版）.科学出版社. 1980. ISBN 9787110011966
工程控制论（第3版）.科学出版社, 2011. ISBN 9787030300942
《钱学森科学技术思想丛书》
钱学森论火箭导弹和航空航天.科学出版社, 2011.
钱学森现代军事科学思想.科学出版社, 2011.
钱学森论系统科学（讲话）.科学出版社, 2011.
现代科学技术体系总体框架的探索.科学出版社, 2011.
社会工程学.科学出版社, 2011.
地理科学与现代科学技术体系.科学出版社, 2011.
钱学森哲学思想.科学出版社, 2011.
钱学森思维科学.科学出版社, 2011.
马克思主义哲学与现代科学技术.科学出版社, 2011.
人体复杂系统科学探索.科学出版社, 2011.
系统论—还原论与整体论的辨证统一.科学出版社, 2011.
创建系统学。山西科学技术出版社，2001. ISBN 9787537719483
创建系统学（新世纪版）.上海交通大学出版社, 2007. ISBN 9787313045928
气体动力学诸方程. 1966.
星际航行概论. 1966.
星际航行概论。中国宇航出版社, 2008. ISBN 9787802184398
物理力学讲义. 1962.
物理力学讲义（新世纪版）.上海交通大学出版社，2007. ISBN 9787313048769
从飞机导弹说到生产过程的自动化. 1959.
论系统工程。湖南科学技术出版社, 1982. ISBN 9787535704122
论系统工程（新世纪版）.上海交通大学出版社, 2007. ISBN 9787313045898
钱学森文集. 1991
论人体科学与现代科技。上海交通大学出版社, 1998. ISBN 9787313016010
钱学森手稿。山西教育出版社，2000. ISBN 9787544022262
水动力学讲义手稿.上海交通大学出版社, 2007. ISBN 9787313041999
钱学森书信（1-10卷）.国防工业出版社, 2007. ISBN 9787118046205
钱学森书信选（上、下卷）.国防工业出版社, 2008. ISBN 9787118056457

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16. Tsien
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