Yang Jiachi

Yang Jiachi (; 16 July 1919 – 11 June 2006) was a Chinese aerospace engineer and a specialist in satellite control and automation. A participant in the development of China's first satellites and the developer of the attitude control system for recoverable satellites, he was awarded the Two Bombs, One Satellite Meritorious Medal in 1999. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics. The asteroid 11637 Yangjiachi is named after him.

Early life and education Yang was born on 16 July 1919 in the town of Zhenze in Wujiang, Jiangsu, Republic of China.

Yang received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Chiao Tung University in Shanghai in 1941. He received a Master of Science in 1947 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1949 from Harvard University. His most important contribution was developing three-axis stabilization for the attitude control systems of recoverable satellites, Deng accepted their proposal, which gave birth to the influential 863 Program, named after the date of their letter.

Honours and recognition Yang was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, and of the International Academy of Astronautics in 1985. He was conferred the Special Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award (1985), the Tan Kah Kee Prize in Information Science (1995), the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Technological Sciences (1999), and the Two Bombs, One Satellite Meritorious Medal (1999).

The asteroid 11637 Yangjiachi, discovered by the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program in 1996, is named after him.