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).