In 1960, after my country's first imitated short-range missile "Dongfeng-1" was successfully launched, the missile team led by Qian Xuesen began to design the medium- and short-range surface-to-surface missile "Dongfeng-2" on its own.
On March 21, 1962, the first "Dongfeng-2" conducted its first flight test in the vast Gobi desert. Only 69 seconds after launch, the missile crashed. After the launch failed, Qian Xuesen and his colleagues rushed to the launch site immediately. In the freezing desert, he led everyone to spend three days collecting the wreckage and fragments of the missile, not even a small screw being missed. Qian Xuesen encouraged everyone not to have too much pressure and not to be afraid of taking responsibility for failure. Qian Xuesen also formulated a principle: eliminate all problems on the ground, and missiles cannot go to the sky with any doubts.
After repeated summaries and improvements, more than two years later, the revised design of the missile "Dongfeng-2" went through 17 large-scale ground development tests and 105 engine tests. The new "Dongfeng-2" was once again transported to the Jiuquan launch site. Re-launch test.
On June 29, 1964, my country's self-developed "Dongfeng-2" missile was ignited and launched into the air at the Jiuquan launch site, accurately hitting the intended target 1,000 kilometers away. This opened a new page in the history of my country's missile development. The generals and scientists hugged each other excitedly. Qian Xuesen said happily that if we were still primary school students two years ago, we are at least middle school students now!
"Dongfeng No. 2" was equipped with troops in 1966 and has now been retired. The missile has a total length of 20.9 meters, a diameter of 1.65 meters, and a take-off weight of 29.8 tons. It uses a first-stage liquid fuel rocket engine , with a maximum range of 1,300 kilometers or 1,500 kilometers (Dongfeng-2A). It can carry a 1,500 kilogram high-explosive warhead, or 1 nuclear warhead (Dongfeng-2A) with a power of 20,000 tons TNT equivalent .
