(XINHUA)

Sun Jiadong, a senior Chinese expert in carrier rocket and satellite technology, received a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 2010 CCTV Economic People of the Year program.

Sun, 81, is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics and chief designer of China's lunar probe project. His life closely parallels the history of China's aerospace technology.

Sun entered the Harbin Institute of Technology at 18 and was later sent to study aircraft engines at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in Russia in 1951. After graduation, Sun returned to China in 1958 and worked as a researcher on rocket. Since the 1960s, Sun has devoted himself to satellite research and development.