upon his return, he helped lead the chinese nuclear weapons program. this effort ultimately led to china's first successful atomic bomb test and hydrogen bomb test, making china the fifth nuclear weapons state, and achieving the fastest fission-to-fusion development in history. additionally, qian's work led to the development of the dongfeng ballistic missile and the chinese space program. for his contributions, he became known as the "father of chinese rocketry", nicknamed the "king of rocketry". he is recognized as one of the founding fathers of two bombs, one satellite.