Sun Jiadong, an aerospace engineer and the chief designer of both the Beidou navigation system and China's lunar exploration project, was awarded the Medal of the Republic on September 17, ahead of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People's Republic of China. The seven other honorees were nuclear physicist Yu Min, longtime national legislator Shen Jilan, war veterans Li Yannian and Zhang Fuqing, the father of hybrid rice Yuan Longping, nuclear submarine designer Huang Xuhua, and Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou.

Born in northeast China's Liaoning Province in 1929, Sun started satellite research in 1967 when he was assigned responsibility for the technology behind China's first manmade satellite Dongfanghong I.

In 2004, 75-year-old Sun was tapped as chief designer of China's lunar probe project. In 2009, he directed and witnessed the successful launch of China's 100th satellite. Sun was responsible for the technology or was chief designer or chief engineer for over 30 of the first 100 satellites independently developed by China.

In 1999, he won the Two Bombs, One Satellite Achievement Medal, China's top award for scientists who have contributed to China's nuclear and satellite programs. In 2010, he received China's Top Science and Technology Award.