China lauches a bird for the Phillippines...................
infoseek.com
China boosts space industry with satellite success
06:01 a.m. Aug 20, 1997 Eastern
By Mure Dickie
BEIJING, Aug 20 (Reuter) - China on Wednesday successfully fired a Philippine communications satellite into orbit aboard a Long March 3B rocket in what analysts called a crucial boost to a national launch industry battered by high-profile failures.
Chinese space officials said the 3.77-tonne orbiter owned by Mabuhay Philippine Satellite Corp was operating normally in geo-synchronous orbit after being launched from the Xichang space base in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
State television broadcasts showed the new-generation Long March 3B rocket leaving a column of fire arcing into the dark sky over its launch pad, nestled among the low hills, fields and villages of southwestern Sichuan province.
China had been banking on a successful launch of the Mabuhay to restore confidence in its space industry after a series of disasters that included the February 1996 loss of the first 3B and its U.S.-built Intelsat 708 satellite payload.
``After this success, we feel really happy,'' said an official of China's Great Wall Industry Corp, which handles commercial space launches for foreign firms.
``We always feel extremely worried about launches because they involve high technology and high risk,'' the official said.
The launch of Mabuhay's ``Agila'' satellite, the first orbiter to be controlled by a Filipino-led consortium, had been delayed at least three times in recent weeks by poor weather.
Foreign industry analysts said the launch was a vital boost to China's space business, which has struggled to regain its international reputation since the first 3B exploded shortly after take-off, killing at least six people on the ground.
That disaster followed the loss of a Long March 2E in January 1995 in which a family of six was killed by a rain of fiery debris and the August 1996 failure of a Long March 3 to put its Chinasat-7 payload into the proper orbit.
``This success is certainly more than welcome...but they have got to demonstrate a couple more,'' said one Western space analyst based in Hong Kong.
``The success rate is still one-for-one with the Long March 3B and that doesn't really mean it's reliable,'' he said.
China is depending on the three-stage, liquid-fuelled 3B, which can fire satellites weighing almost five tonnes into high orbit, as its main lifter for the three more commercial launches it has scheduled for 1997.
Technicians say they have fixed the problem that caused the 1996 loss -- an electrical fault in the direction-controlling inertial platform -- a view echoed by APT Satellite Holdings Ltd, which will use a 3B to launch its Apstar 2R orbiter.
``The successful launch of Mabuhay demonstrated that they have taken effective corrective action for the design and the manufacture of the Long March 3B,'' a spokesman of the Beijing-controlled company said by telephone from Hong Kong.
China's 12th commercial launch for a foreign customer would also drive down the cost of insuring the 3.7-tonne Apstar 2R, now scheduled to be launched in late September, he said.
``We still need some more time to finalise the insurance premium rate and we hope we can have better terms,'' he said. ``(The Mabuhay success) will be very helpful.'' ^REUTER@
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