In his New Year address delivered on December 31, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned the China-developed Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite as an example of the adage, “with persistence dreams can always come true”.

The new DAMPE satellite was developed independently by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as the first satellite in the CAS space science program. It has been working smoothly since its successful launch at 8:12 am on December 17, 2015, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province.

The satellite is one of the first four scientific satellites under the CAS space program. Three other satellites – a quantum science experimental satellite, Shijian (Practice)-10 scientific recoverable satellite and the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope – are scheduled to be sent into space in the near future.