China successfully launches the world's first quantum satellite "Micius"

At 01:40 on August 16, China successfully launched the world's first quantum science experimental satellite (referred to as quantum satellite) into space using the Long March 2D carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The complete success of this launch mission marks another important step forward in China's space science research. The picture shows the rocket igniting and launching.

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At 01:40 on August 16, China successfully launched the world's first quantum science experimental satellite (referred to as quantum satellite) into space using the Long March 2D carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The complete success of this launch mission marks another important step forward in China's space science research. The picture shows the rocket igniting and launching.

At 1:40 a.m. on August 16, 2016, my country successfully launched the world's first quantum science experimental satellite "Micius" into space using the Long March 2D carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This will enable my country to be the first in the world to realize quantum communication between satellites and the ground, and build a quantum secure communication and scientific experiment system that integrates the sky and the earth.

Academician Pan Jianwei, a quantum satellite scientist, introduced that the security of quantum communication is based on the basic principles of quantum physics. The indivisibility of single photons and the uniqueness of quantum states ensure that information cannot be eavesdropped or cracked, and in principle ensures the unconditional security of identity authentication, transmission encryption, and digital signatures, which can fundamentally and completely solve information security problems.

The quantum satellite was approved in December 2011 and is one of the first scientific experimental satellites of the CAS Space Science Pilot Project. Its main scientific goals are to conduct satellite-to-ground high-speed quantum key distribution experiments and, on this basis, to conduct wide-area quantum key network experiments, in order to achieve major breakthroughs in the practical application of space quantum communications; and to conduct quantum entanglement distribution and quantum teleportation experiments on a spatial scale, in order to verify the theory of quantum mechanics on a spatial scale.

The project also built a ground-based scientific application system, including four quantum communication ground stations in Nanshan, Delingha, Xinglong and Lijiang, and the Ali quantum teleportation experimental station, which together with the quantum satellite formed a space-ground integrated quantum science experimental system.

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Pan Jianwei said that my country's independently developed quantum satellite has made breakthroughs in a series of key technologies, including high-precision tracking and aiming, satellite-ground polarization state maintenance and basis vector correction, satellite-borne quantum entanglement source, etc. The successful launch and on-orbit operation of the quantum satellite will help my country maintain and expand its international leading position in the overall level of practical application of quantum communication technology, achieve a leapfrog improvement in national information security and information technology, and is expected to promote Chinese scientists to make major breakthroughs in the frontier field of quantum science, which is of great significance for promoting the sustainable development of my country's space science satellite series.

The mission also carried the Thin Atmosphere Science Experiment Satellite developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Spanish Scientific Experiment Small Satellite. After the quantum satellite is launched into orbit, it will undergo about three months of in-orbit testing and then enter the in-orbit operation phase.

The quantum satellite project is led by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; the University of Science and Technology of China is responsible for proposing scientific goals and developing scientific application systems; the Shanghai Microsatellite Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for the development of the satellite system, and the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and USTC are jointly developing the payload subsystem; the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for the development, construction and operation of the ground support system; and the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth Science and other units participate.

It is reported that the Long March 2D carrier rocket was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. This launch is the 234th flight of the Long March series of carrier rockets.