CHINA GREAT WALL Industry (CGWIC) is to resume satellite launches with Asia Pacific Satellite's Hughes-built ApStar 1A aboard a Long March 3 (LM3) booster from Xichang, in July. This follows a hiatus in launches, after the loss of the first Long March 3B booster on 15 February, along with its Intelsat 708 satellite payload.
The booster has had five successes and two partial failures since its first flight in 1984 and the LM3A has been successful twice. A domestic-communications satellite will fly on the LM3A after October.
China has lost four launch contracts, including two for Intelsat, since the LM3B lost control immediately after lift-off, and its only other firm contract is for the launch - by an LM3B - of the ApStar 2B, a replacement for a satellite lost in an LM2E failure in 1995. This is scheduled for December.
Beijing has been criticised for the LM3B failure in a report by an Intelsat executive who was at Xichang for the launch attempt. Xichang "-falls pathetically short" of standards expected in the West, says the leaked memo.
Chinese controllers are accused of allowing the LM3B to continue flying for 20s before blowing it up, to ensure that the launch pad was not destroyed. Six people were killed in the crash, according to official reports.
Source: Flight International
