[June 30, 1998] Rocsat-1 Renamed Formosa-1 After receiving over 1000 suggestions from
school children all over Taiwan in a satellite naming and
patch design contest, NSPO announced that Taiwan's first
satellite will carry the name "Formosa-1" --
Formosa is another name for the island of Taiwan. It also
reported that the top eight winners will get a free
ticket to the United States to watch the satellite
launch.
[June 27, 1998] China to Launch European-Built
SinoSat-1 Between July 14 and 18 China will launch its first European-built
satellite between July 14 and 18 from its Xichang launch
site in the west of the country, the China Daily reported
Friday. SinoSat-1 was built by France's Aerospatiale
under a joint venture between Aerospatiale and Daimler
Benz Aerospace for a domestic client. It will be managed
by Sino Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. and carries 24
C-band transponders as well as 14 Ku-band transponders.
The launch will be the 53rd by China's Long March series
of rockets and the fifth by a Long March 3B, the
country's largest and most powerful launch vehicle.
[June 24, 1998] Clinton Decided to Extend Sino-US
Space Cooperation Although some US congressmen intentionally put
on a show of rivalry against the White House and put
forward a bill banning the launching of US satellites
with Chinese rockets under the pretext of
"technology leakage", the Clinton
administration decided to extend the agreement on Sino-US
space cooperation. Meanwhile, members of the US House
Science Committee sent President Clinton a letter Tuesday
to dissuade him from entering into any new cooperative
space agreements with China during his upcoming trip. The
letter states that international space cooperation can
benefit the American only when there are no threats to US
national security. Seventeen of the committee's 46
members signed the letter. (Zhongguo Tongxun She /
Florida Today)
[June 20, 1998] ChinaStar-1 Positioned, Service
Will Start Soon ChinaStar-1 was finally deployed at 87.5E on
June 16 20:30(Beijing Time) All systems onboard the
satellite are working normally. All main and backup
transponders have been opened and are in good condition.
ChinaStar-1 was successfully launched into a transfer
orbit from Xichang space center in southern China on May
30. The satellite manufacturer Lookheed Martin's
ground station in Guan and ChinaStar's Beijing ground
station jointly carried out the satellite deployment
operation. Source close to the satellite owner China
Oriental Telecommunications says on-orbit tests of
satellite are near completion. Payload tests will be
carried out by ChinaStar-1 ground station shortly.
It is anticipated that the high powered advanced
satellite will be put into service in mid-July.
[June 15, 1998] ST-1 Set For September 1 Launch Taiwan and Singapore will launch their joint
telecommunication satellite on September 1, the Liberty
Times said Sunday. ST-1 will be launched by Ariane-4
rocket from the French Guiana Space Centre in South
America, the paper quoted Chen Yao, chairman of Chunghwa
Telecommunication Co, as saying. The 240 million U.S.
dollar satellite is developed by Singapore Telecom and
Chunghwa on a 50/50 stake-share basis. It is being built
by Anglo-French firm Matra Marconi Space. (Deutsche
Presse-Agentur)
[June 14, 1988] Teledesic Considers Long March After the merger of the Teledesic and Celestri
broadband LEO satellite constellations, announced on
May 21st, Motorola has announced an ambitious plan
to have the entire constellation - 288 satellites plus
spares - launched in only 14 months. To achieve
this, Bary Bertiger, Snr.VP of Motorola's Satellite
Communications Group, says that several launch vehicles
being considered. These include Ariane 5,
Delta 3, Proton, and Long March. Teledesic system
was expected to book launches on the Soyouz
commercialised by Starsem. Since then, the mass of the
projected satellites has grown considerably, imposing new
launch requirements. The Teledesic constellation is
planned for a 2003 start. This would imply first launches
in starting in 2001 / 2002. (go-Ariane)
[June 13, 1998] Sinosat-1 Arrived in Xichang
Today Sinosat-1, a telecommunications satellite made
by the national Aerospatial company of France arrived at
the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's
Sichuan province today. The satellite is to be launched
in the near future by a Long March 3B carrier rocket.
This will be the first time for China to launch a
telecommunications satellite made by a European country.
The satellite carries 24 C-band transponders which cover
the entire Asia-Pacific region and 14 Ku-band
transponders which cover China and its neighboring
countries with an effective life of 15 years. (Xinhua)
[June 12, 1998] CIA Collects China Rocketry Data
From US Space Companies Some of the same companies that are under
investigation for possibly helping China's missile
program have been quietly providing data to U.S.
intelligence about Chinese rocketry.Government
and industry officials describe a steady flow of
information over the past three years from aerospace
contractors expanding U.S. knowledge of Chinese
capabilities. Previously, that knowledge was limited
largely to what could be learned through such methods as
spy satellites and interceptions of in-flight missile
signals. The CIA's National Resources Division regularly
met with scientists and executives working with China on
commercial satellite launches, according to a senior
industry official. In the U.S. effort to gather
information about Chinese rocketry, a breakthrough came
in April 1996 when China agreed to cooperate with a
review team of U.S. and European experts to look into the
explosion of a Long March rocket carrying a U.S.
commercial satellite (AP).
[June 10, 1998] China Calls For International
Space Cooperation at UN Meeting China supports international cooperation
in the peaceful use of outer space, the Chinese delegate
said at a UN meeting on June 4. Speaking at the 41st
session of the United Nations Committee of the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), delegate Huang Jiahua said
that China was cooperating with dozens of countries in
space technology and trade. He said China was sharing in
the manufacture and launching of satellites, manned space
flights and the application of space technology. The
Chinese delegate called for wider and closer
international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer
space and more attention to the needs of the developing
countries. The main topic of the 10-day COPUOS
session, which started Wednesday, is preparation for the
UNISPACE III conference scheduled for July 1999 in
Vienna. (Xinhua)
[June 10, 1998] Chinese and British Universities
Develop Mini-Satellite Tsinghua University, Beijing and University of
Surrey, United Kingdom will jointly develop a
mini-satellite called "Tsinghua-1". The
satellite will carry 5 different payloads to verify the
possibility of building a satellite constellation to
monitor environment and natural disasters. It will be the
first satellite developed by a university in China.
[June
6, 1998] Long March 4B is Ready to Launch ZY-1 The first Long March 4B, a new member of Long
March family has been completed in Shanghai Academy of
Space Technology, Shanghai Media reported yesterday. Long
March 4B is an improved model of the existing Long March
4A. But the specifications and the performance of the new
rocket was not given by the report. The first 4B will be
used to launch the Sino-Brazilan ZY-1 (CBERS-1) resources
satellite in next month.
[June
5, 1998] China to Launch World's Most Advanced Solar
Space Telescope China will launch a solar telescope, developed
jointly by Chinese and German scientists, into space
around 2003. The telescope, which would cost about 500
million yuan (US$60 million) to build, would be the most
advanced in the world, said Ai Guoxiang, head of the
Beijing Observatory, part of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences. Mr Ai said the telescope would have a
resolution 10 times that of the SOHO model developed and
launched by American and European scientists. China would
be responsible for about 80 per cent of the budget and
would develop the main telescope, with a calibre of one
metre. Most solar telescopes launched by other countries
have calibres of 12 cm, Mr Ai said. The Sino-German
telescope will weigh about two tonnes and is expected to
work in space for three years. It will be used to
research the solar magnetic field. A prototype is now
being built at the observatory. (South China Morning
Post)
[June 3, 1998] AMS Launched into Space in Final
Shuttle-Mir Mission Space shuttle Discovery thundered into space
from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A at 6:06 p.m.
EDT, beginning the ninth and final U.S. docking mission
with the Russian Mir space station. The shuttle also
carrys Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), an experimental
device to detect antimatter in space. AMS is jointly
developed by China, Taiwan and other six countries. China
is responsible for building the key componenet, a 1.85
tons permanent magnet and the support structure of AMS.
AMS will be placed in the International Space Station in
2001.
[June 3, 1998] China Builds GPS Measurement
Network China recently completed a national GPS
measurement network which includes 500 satellite ground
stations, 30 province measurement stations and 800
regional measurement staions. Its high precision is
reportly only with one centimeter error in measuring
distance of 1000 kilometers. The GPS technology has been
widely used in many fields in China, such as civil
aviation, railway transportation, earthquake monitoring
and national defence.
[June3, 1998] Chinastar-1 Launch For PICC: Also A
Success THE People's Insurance (Property) Company of
China (PICC Property) provided a US$230 million insurance
policy for the China Star-1 communication satellite
successfully launched last weekend. The success of the
satellite launch is a breakthrough for China's rocket
technologies, and also marks the growing ability of PICC
Property to underwrite high-risk projects, a PICC
Property official said. Because of the high risk and long
term of the satellite insurance, PICC Property asked
J&H Marsh & Mclennan, one of the world's top
insurance brokers, to sell part of the satellite's
insurance of the China Star-1 on the world market. After
the establishment of the China Space Pool in 1997, PICC
Property entered co-operative arrangements with other
domestic underwriters to insure China Star-1. (China
Daily)
[June 3, 1998] Arianespace Does not Worry About
Challenge From China European satellite launcher Arianespace
expressed confidence Tuesday in its Asia-Pacific business
prospects and saw no order cancellations coming despite
the crash of the region's economies, Arianespace chairman
and chief executive Jean-Marie Luton told a news
conference in Singapore. Asked about the challenge posed
by China, Luton said he respected China's
capabilities but "we are not static at all,"
adding that "each time there is progress in our
competitors, we have an answer." Arianespace expects
to launch seven satellites for Asia-Pacific
customers in 1998-99, including Singapore-Taiwan's ST-1.