The Fanhui Shi Weixing (simplified Chinese: 返回式卫星; traditional Chinese: 返回式衛星; pinyin: Fǎnhuí Shì Wèixīng; lit. 'recoverable satellite') series of satellites was China's first reconnaissance satellite program. The satellites were used for military reconnaissance and civilian imagery tasks and completed 23 missions between November 1974 and April 2016. There were four generations of the Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW) satellites: FSW-0 from 1974 to 1987; FSW-1 from 1987 to 1993; FSW-2 from 1992 to 1996; and FSW-3 from 2003 to 2005. Two derivative models, the Shijian-8 (SJ-8) and Shijian-10 (SJ-10), were developed and launched as 'seed satellites' conducting bioastronautic experiments for the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. All FSW-series satellites were launched into orbit using Long March rockets from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC).

The successful recovery of an FSW-0 recoverable satellite in 1974 established China as the third nation to launch and recover a satellite following the United States and the Soviet Union. This success served as the basis for the second Chinese crewed space program, the third crewed program (Project 863) during the late 1980s, and the current Shenzhou program (active since 1992). A novel feature of the spacecraft's re-entry module was the use of impregnated oak, a natural material, as the ablative material for its heat shield.

The Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW) imagery reconnaissance satellite program was succeeded by the ongoing Yaogan Weixing satellite program which began in 2006 and consists of imagery, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and ocean surveillance payloads.

The beginnings of the FSW-0 (military designation "Jianbing-1") recoverable satellite began in 1965 when Qian Xuesen conceived and proposed the idea and, after significant and tragic setbacks, finally completed it in 1974.

Having returned to Mainland China from the United States after pressure from FBI and Ku Klux Klan during the Second Red Scare, "father of the Chinese missile program" Qian Xuesen began a remarkably successful career in rocket science, boosted by the reputation he garnered for his past achievements, and eventually rose through the Party's ranks to become a Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party member. Purportedly out of his dream of crewed spaceflight but also recognizing the military value, Qian Xuesen urged the Chinese Central Planning Committee to invest in the development of recoverable satellite technologies, similar to those the United States and Soviet Union had been successfully operating since the early 1960s. Interested more in the military value recoverable satellites would provide, the committee accepted and tasked space physicist and engineer Zhao Jiuzhang (who is today known as the "father of the Chinese satellite program" for his work as the chief designer of China's first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1) to head the project. Earnest work on the project began in 1965 after Jiuzhang's team submitted a preliminary analysis of requirements having toured military and civilian organizations to assess potential applications of a recoverable satellite program. Wang Xiji, an American-educated rocket scientist and designer of the Long March 1 rocket which would launch the Dong Fang Hong 1 satellite in 1970, was named chief designer of the recoverable satellite program.

In May 1966, Mao Zedong, with the help of the Cultural Revolution Group, launched the Cultural Revolution with the stated goal of preserving Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society and to re-impose Mao Zedong Thought (known outside China as Maoism) as the dominant ideology in China. Among other groups, the purges of Mao's Red Guards focused heavily on academics and intellectuals regarded as the "Stinking Old Ninth" which included the seizure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the persecution of 131 of the 171 senior members and the killings of 229 members. Zhao Jiuzhang was killed (though some sources say he committed suicide under the pressures of persecution), Qian Xeusen was reduced to the role of a common worker, and Wang Xiji was accused of sabotaging an FSW test parachute for which he fought to prove his innocence. Later in 1971, when Mao's successor Lin Biao died in a plane crash following an abortive coup d'état, Mao initiated an immense witch-hunt to oust potential supporters of Lin Biao. As a result, many departments of the Academy were closed to include the Shuguang project, China's proposed first crewed spacecraft, which had shared much of its technology with the recoverable satellite program costing the team valuable development money and time. Only after several months of persistent attack by Mao's Red Guards did Premier of the PRC Zhou Enlai intervene to put fifteen key scientists in critical missile programs under state protection while others did their best to survive the violence.

Despite the challenges and four years past its goal, the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) completed the FSW-0 satellite which weighed 1,800 kilograms and carried photographic film and two cameras intended to support both military and civilian needs. FSW-0 carried a prism-scanning panoramic camera and a stellar camera both designed by the Changchun Institute of Optics and tested on two T7A rockets in July 1967.

In 1972, several technician teams were dispatched to Laiyang in Shandong, Xinhua in Hunan, Lhasa in Tibet, and Kashgar in Xinjiang to establish the nation's first satellite control, tracking, and telemetry stations. Having established four fixed stations and two mobile, technicians tested the control network with Soviet-made Il-14 aircraft flying at high-altitudes.