Dongfanghong (Chinese: 东方红; pinyin: Dōngfāng Hóng; lit. 'The East is Red') was a satellite program of the People's Republic of China. The program started in August 1965 as Project 651—a less ambitious successor to the earlier Project 581—with the goal of launching a satellite heavier than both Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1 into space, and developing all the necessary technologies to do so.[1]