Chinese space defence expert Zhang Xiaoxin dies in car crash in Beijing

Zhang, 62, a pioneer in China’s space weather sector, is remembered for his outstanding contribution to monitoring and warning technology

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Zhang Xiaoxin, who died on Sunday, was a pioneer in China’s space weather sector and left a mark in space, aviation and communications and China’s serviced space missions. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:44pm, 17 Dec 2024

A top Chinese space expert who specialised in weather monitoring and early warning systems died in a car crash in Beijing on Sunday night aged 62.

Zhang Xiaoxin, a space expert who had long been involved in space weather research, was mourned in an obituary issued on Tuesday by the National Satellite Meteorological Centre (NSMC), an affiliate of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), where he worked.

Zhang won a top award given by the Chinese military for science and tech progress, although little information is available about his research project.

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He is the second Chinese scientist with close ties to the military to die in a car crash in recent years.

In July last year, Feng Yanghe, an outstanding young expert in artificial intelligence related to China’s defence sector, died in Beijing on the way to “a major mission” at the age of 38.

Feng was an associate professor at the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) in Changsha, Hunan province, and led teams in developing the War Skull I and War Skull II AI programs used by the People’s Liberation Army to simulate joint operation military war games.

Zhang was born in 1962 in Shandong province in eastern China. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Jilin University in 1987 and a doctorate in space physics from Auburn University in the United States in 2003.