China returns to satellite business

China returns to satellite business

BEIJING (AFP): China has bounced back from its latest satellite launch disaster, winning two fresh contracts to send communications satellites into orbit for U.S. and Philippine companies.

The first launch will take place in late 1996, with a Long March 3C rocket carrying a U.S.-built satellite owned by Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corp., the China Daily reported Saturday.

It will mark the first time China has provided a commercial satellite launching service for a Southeast Asian nation.

The second launch, scheduled for late 1998, will involve a Long March 3C carrying 12 satellites for the American Globalstar system -- an umbrella of 48 low-orbit satellites providing worldwide telephone and other digital communication services.

During the signing ceremony Friday, Robert Berry, president of Space Systems/Loral which manufactured the Mabuhay and Globalstar satellites, said he was "fully confident" about the reliability of the Chinese launch service, despite the recent loss of the Asia-Pacific II satellite.

The satellite -- owned by a Hong Kong-based telecommunications company -- was destroyed in an explosion that occurred seconds after it was launched by a Long March rocket on January 26.

China began commercial satellite launch operations in the 1970s, and, despite some doubts about the reliability of the Chinese rockets, has scored notable successes because of its cut- price service.

At an estimated US$20 million per launch, the Chinese rate is well below that of its main competitors -- the European consortium Arianespace and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).