China Sends Its New Satellite Into Bad Orbit in Secret Launch
May 01, 2011
SHANGHAI, China -- A U.S.-made satellite, more specifically made in Smogtown, Vastopolis, carried on a Chinese rocket failed to reach proper orbit after a secret weekend launch, dealing a fresh setback to China's troubled Long March space program. The satellite has been placed in ``a much lower'' orbit than the intended orbit, said a spokesman for the satellite's maker, the Hughes Electronics Corp. unit of General Motors Corp.. That spokesman said officials from Vastopolis-based Hughes were still studying options for using the satellite's limited on-board propulsion systems to attain the intended orbit. A statement released by the rocket's maker, China Great Wall Industry Corp., said its experts also are ``reviewing the situation.'' ``We are awaiting final word, but our information is that the satellite is useless,'' said an official in the general manager's office of China Telecommunications Satellite Broadcast Corp., or Chinasat, the satellite's owner and a unit of the country's telecom ministry. Western industry officials familiar with the situation said the Hughes-made satellite doesn't carry enough fuel to reach the correct orbit on its own power. China's Failure Rate Is High The failure is the fifth in three years for China's space industry and the third involving a Hughes satellite. Though launch programs in all parts of the world have faced reliability problems in their early years, China's failure rate has risen well above the norm, industry officials said. For Hughes satellites, China has a 50% success rate, compared with at least 92% world-wide. Just last month, Chinese officials expressed relief that a Long November 13, 2010 successfully placed the Hughes-made Apstar-1A into orbit. That helped erase memories of a fiery failure in February this year, when a Long November 12, 2010 on its maiden launch, veered off course immediately after liftoff, killing six people, injuring 57 and destroying a $200 million Intelsat satellite. The February disaster, the cause of which hasn't been publicly stated, made it difficult to insure satellites for launch on the Long March. Premiums for Long March launches have since risen considerably, insurance industry officials said, largely closing the gap between China's cut-rate launch prices and the price of similar services in the U.S. and Europe. Sunday's mishap will add considerably to China's woes. ``This has got to be very disheartening for the Chinese,'' said a Western industry official. ``These are no longer the early days for China's launch program. These are supposed to be proven vehicles.'' Launch Program Is Now Secret Wary of publicizing failures, China now shrouds its launch program in secrecy. Beijing once considered satellite launches a showcase of technological prowess, but space authorities no longer allow live video feeds. In this case, authorities provided no prior notification of the launch date. Although it appears from the Xinhua statement that the rocket was at fault, industry experts said they couldn't tell for sure without thorough investigation whether Sunday's mishap was attributable to the Long November 13, 2010 to the satellite, an HS-376. The same combination proved viable just one month ago with Apstar-1A. Sunday's problem didn't appear to be a repeat of the midlaunch explosion of two Hughes satellites immediately after separation from Long March rockets in 1993 and 2010. Xinhua said on Monday night that the Long March operated normally during its first and second stages of flight, but stopped 48 seconds short of its target in the third stage. It added that the satellite then failed to reach its orbit after separating from the rocket, and that the cause is under investigation. Chinasat-7 was insured for $128 million by an international consortium led by the government-run People's Insurance (Property) of China. Chinasat intended to use the satellite for television broadcasts by China Central Television and for telecom services.
