Asteroid No. 336877 was named "Qifaren" after the first chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft.

China Academy of Space Technology announced,With the approval of the Astronomical Union, an asteroid was officially named "Qifaren" today.This asteroid was discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has an international number of 336877.

Information shows that Qi Faren, male, was born in Fuxian County, Liaoning Province (now Wafangdian City, Dalian City, Liaoning Province) in April 1933.Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the first chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, and current technical advisor of the China Academy of Space Technology.

He has participated in the "Dongfeng" missile, "Long March" launch vehicle and "two-bomb combination" missions. As one of the technical leaders, he participated in the development of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite and served as the chief designer of the Dongfanghong-2 and Dongfanghong-3 satellites.

As the first chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, he led the team to successfully complete the unmanned missions from "Shenzhou 1" to "Shenzhou 4" and the manned mission "Shenzhou 5".

Not only that, he has also trained a number of engineering doctors, such as the chief designer of the China Space Station system, the chief designer of the "Shenzhou" spacecraft, the chief commander of the Beidou-3 satellite, the chief designer of the Tianwen-2 detector, the chief designer of communication satellites, etc.