15 Facts About Ren Xinmin

Ren Xinmin was a Chinese aerospace engineer and a specialist in astronautics and liquid rocket engine technology.

Together with Huang Weilu, Tu Shou'e, and Liang Shoupan, Ren was considered one of the "Four Elders of China's Aerospace", only surpassed by Qian Xuesen, the founder of China's aerospace industry.

Ren Xinmin was awarded the Two Bombs, One Satellite Merit Medal in 1999.

Ren Xinmin was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980.

Ren Xinmin was born on 5 December 1915, in Ningguo, Anhui Province.

Ren Xinmin studied chemical engineering at the National Central University in Nanjing.

Ren Xinmin worked at an armoury after graduation in 1940.

Ren Xinmin attended the University of Michigan in 1945, where he obtained his MS and PhD.

Ren Xinmin was then recruited by the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of Defence in 1956.

Ren Xinmin was appointed as the chief designer and helped develop the Dongfeng 2, a medium-range rocket, in 1961.

Ren Xinmin served as Vice Minister of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building from 1975 until 1982, when he was moved to the Ministry of Aerospace Industry.

Ren Xinmin was in charge of its five sections as chief engineer and was nicknamed the "Chief Chief Engineer ".

Ren Xinmin had been a dedicated promoter of China's crewed spaceflight and space station projects since the 1980s.

Ren Xinmin married Yu Shuangqin, the daughter of a Nationalist government official, in 1944.

Ren Xinmin died on 12 February 2017, in Beijing, aged 101.