[August 31, 1998] Spot Image Opens Joint Venture
in China Spot Image has just opened its fourth
subsidiary, Beijing Spot Image Co. Ltd., in the Chinese
capital. The company is a joint venture of Spot Image
France and the China Remote Sensing Ground Station (RSGS)
which, under the direction of the Academy of Sciences,
operates the Spot direct receiving station in Miyun, some
100 kilometres north east of Beijing. The purpose of
Beijing Spot Image Co. Ltd. will be to market data
received at the Miyun station on the Chinese market. Spot
products will meet the country's growing need for
geographic information for conventional applications such
as mapping and map updating, land-use management and
planning (where urban planning is a major priority),
agriculture, environment, and so on; all of which are
particularly important for the country's development.
(LaunchSpace)
[August 27, 1998] Taiwan Begins Rocsat-1
Countdown Following Wednesday's launch of Taiwan's first
joint-venture commercial satellite, the countdown now
begins for the first solely Taiwan-funded orbiter,
ROCSAT-1, a remote sensing and research satellite.
"We have a launch window between December 15 and
March 30 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," said Chen
Shao-hsing, chief of staff at the National Space
Programme. Technical problems delayed ROCSAT-1 from its
original April 1998 launch target. Chen said ROCSAT-1 had
now passed nearly all final checks. "All of the
major tests are complete. So far so good," Chen
said. ROCSAT-1 was designed and built by TRW Inc of the
United States under a US$61 million contract (with a
Taiwan-built ionospheric plasma electrodynamics
instrument, an ocean colour imager and experimental
communications payload) and will be launched by U.S.
Athena rocket for US$18 million. Taiwan will also invite
tenders for the construction of its second satellite,
ROCSAT-2, a scientific research satellite weighing less
than one ton, in September.
[August 27, 1998] ST-1 Launch Details The successful launch, Flight 109, was carried
out by an Ariane 44P, the version with four
solid-propellant strap-on boosters. Liftoff from Europe's
Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana took place on Tuesday,
August 25, 1998 at 20:07 local time (23:07 GMT; and 7:07
August 26 in Singapore and Taiwan). Provisional
parameters at third stage injection into geostationary
tranfer orbit were: Perigee: 280.4 km; Apogee: 35,976 km;
Inclination: 3.97 degrees. The ground station in Beijing
captured the satellite 50 minutes after the launch. ST-1
will be positioned over the Indian Ocean at 88° East
within the next 12 days, and will be put into service on
October 25, after then it will be controled by the Taipei
Satellite Earth Station Centre and the Seletar Earth
Station in Singapore (half year each). SingTel president
and chief executive officer Lee Hsien Yang and Chunghwa
Telecom chairman Stephen Chen were present in Kourou to
witness the launch. Lee said that the satellite was
positioned at 88 deg East. In Chinese numerology,
"8" represented prosperity, so "88"
meant double-joy for Chunghwa and SingTel. The US$ 240
million ST-1 was designed and built by Matra Marconi
Space. Weighing 3,255 kg (7,161 lb) at liftoff, it is
equipped with 16 Ku-band and 14 C-band transponders and
will cover an area extending from the Middle East to the
Far East. Chunghwa and SingTel each owns 8 Ku-band and 7
C-band transponders. SingTel said yesterday that all its
Ku-band transponers were sold out. Chunghwa is also
optimistic for the market but worry about the signal
interference with the nearby China's ChinaStar-1
satellite at 87.5° East.
[August 26, 1998] Ariane Successfully Launched
ST-1 Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane 44P
rocket at 23:07 GMT August 25 from Kourou, French Guiana
in South America. The booster carried the ST-1
telecommunications spacecraft, the first satellite to be
operated for Taiwan and Singapore, into orbit.Detail
report later.
[August 21, 1998] Iridium Launch Details Launch took place at 07:01'46" (Beijing
Time), August 20 1998 (23:01'46" GMT, August 19).
The second stage and the Smart Dispenser was separated 11
minutes later after the launch. The satellites were
released another 40 minutes later. Initial orbit of the
satellites is: inclination 86.4002deg, perigee 612.353km,
apogee 635.601km. The two satellites, Iridium 3 and
Iridium 76, were assigned the international ID 1998-048A
and 048B, and U.S. SpaceCom number 25431 and 25432.
[August 21, 1998] HK STAR TV Signs Up To Lease
AsiaSat 3S Transponders Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd.
(SAT) said Thursday it's Asian broadcaster STAR
Television is to lease seven transponders on AsiaSat 3S,
the replacement satellite for AsiaSat 3 whose launch in
December failed. It said in a statement that STAR
Television's existing leases on AsiaSat 1 will end ahead
of schedule, with some transferring to AsiaSat 3S when it
becomes operational in March 1999, and replaces AsiaSat
1, whose operative life is due to end late next
year.Under the new arrangements with STAR Television
revenue from January 1998 to March 2014 will rise by
about US$156 million, AsiaSat said, giving no further
details. (Dow Jones Newswires)
[August 20, 1998] Another Successful Long March
Launch Two more Iridium satellites were successfully
launched on board a Long March 2C/SD rocket from the
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. This sixteenth
successful launch for Iridium in the last 15 months
brings the total number of operational satellites
on-orbit to 67. The Long March 2C/SD rocket lifted off
the launch pad at 23:01 GMT on Wednesday. Satellite
separation occurred approximately 50 minutes after
liftoff. The two satellites will be maneuvered into their
respective positions to become part of the operational
constellation. This is the 54th Long
March laucnh and 12th consecutivesuccessful
launch since 1996.
[August 20, 1998] DFH-3 Satellite Delivered to
End User The DFH-3 communication satellite, launched on
May 12, 1997 by a Long March 3A, was formally delivered
to the end user, China Telecommunications Broadcast
Satellite Corporation (Chinasat) on August 12. After one
year's in-orbit test, DFH-3 (Chinasat-6) operates
normally now. China Academy of Space Technology (CAST),
Chinasat and Xi'an Satellite Control Center signed the
long-term operation agreement for the satellite on the
delivery ceremony. The telecommunications satellite, the
most sophisticated and complex satellite ever built in
China, is equipped with 24 transponders used for
television and digital transmission and other
telecommunications services. It has a designed life
span of eight years. (CAST)
[August 19, 1998] More Details About Upcoming
Iridium Launch The launch of replacement Iridium communications
satellites aboard a Long March 2C/SD rocket is scheduled
for August 19. Liftoff from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch
Center in China is scheduled during a five-second launch
window that will open at about 23:01 GMT (19:01 EDT), or
7:01 Beijing Time on August 20 . The mission is to
deliver two Iridium spacecraft (probably numbered 3 and
76) into space to replace two that had previously been
launched but failed. The launch had been scheduled for
end of July but postponed bacause of the failure of two
in-orbit satellites (see July News
section).
[August 15, 1998] Bank Of China To Lend 1.5
Billion Yuan To Great Wall The Bank of China has agreed to lend 1.5 billion
yuan (U.S.$181 million) to China Great Wall Industry
Corp., the country's sole satellite launching company,
Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. China Great Wall
plans to launch 15 international
commercial satellites in the next few years,
according to the report. The Bank of China has issued a
total of 7.3 billion yuan (U.S.$882 million) in loans to
China Great Wall since 1990, supporting the launching of
15 satellites, the report said. China Great Wall has
long-term cooperative agreements with Hughes Space &
Communications Co. and Loral Space & Communications
Ltd.
[August 12, 1998] Hughes Defends APMT Deal Hughes Electronics Corp. is intensely lobbying
the Clinton administration for permission to proceed with
a new telecommunications satellite deal with China
despite the concern in Congress over technology transfers
that could help the Chinese military. Hughes, the world's
largest satellite company, warns that a delay beyond the
middle of this month could kill the transaction, costing
the company up to 1,000 California jobs and hundreds of
millions of dollars. It argues that the satellite, to be
shot into space via a Chinese rocket, would carry mostly
civilian telephone connections across Asia and would
offer only slight benefit to the Chinese military. APMT
(Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications) is a GEO mobile
communication satellite which belongs to a venture
consisting of six Chinese companies. Its large 40-foot
antenna would have to detect and transmit up to 16,000
mobile phone calls at the same time all over Asia.
Clinton administration already granted licenses for
it in 1996, but now is reexamining it because of
minor technical changes made to the satellite.
[August
11, 1998] China Develops Small Satellites Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) is
devloping a small satellite bus for science and earth
observation missions. The first two satellites based on
this bus are Shijian-5 (SY-5) and Haiyang-1 (HY-1 or
Ocean-1). Both satellites weigh 340kg and have two solar
panels. With 11 science payloads onboard, SJ-5 will test
3 different kinds of attitude control methods: 3-axis,
spin and gravity-gradient. HY-1 will be equiped with a
10-band IR ocean color scanner and a 4-band CCD camera.
(CAST)
[August 6, 1998] Ziyuan-1(CBERS-1) Launch Delayed
to Next Year The launch of the first Sino-Brazilian
remote sensory satellite (CBERS), forecast to take
place between the end of September and the middle of
October this year, was postponed until July, 1999.
According to the administrative manager of the project at
the National Space Research Institute (INPE), JosA
Raimundo Coelho, the change in the release date was made
because the final tests on the satellite were not carried
out within the scheduled deadline at the end of July, by
when the satellite should have already embarked towards
the Chinese base for its launch. (Gazeta Mercantil
Online)
[August 5, 1998] Taiwan to Launch First
Commercial Satellite The $240 million ST-1 communication satellite,
50 percent owned by state-run Chunghwa Telecom and
Singapore Telecom, would be launched by Arianespace from
Kourou, French Guiana, using an Ariane-4 rocket on August
25 between 8:07 p.m. and 9:03 p.m. (2307-0003 GMT), said
Chen Chen-lu, assistant manager of Chunghwas
international department. He said Arianespace had already
sent ST-1 to its Kourou site and began the pre-launching
operation on Monday. "If weather conditions and
everything goes smoothly, we expect ST-1 to be able to
run in the orbit to become the first commercial satellite
for Taiwan," Chen said. Chunghwa officials said
ST-1s footprint will cover China, India, Indonesia,
Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri
Lanka. According to Chunghwa Telecom, ST-1 would provide
satellite services for local TV, broadcasting,
telecommunication and internet companies. SingTel and
Chunghwa would each be able to acquire seven C channels
and eight KU channels. (Reuters)
[August 5, 1998] Six Asian Countries to Build
Multipurpose Satellite China, Pakistan, Mongolia, Thailand, South
Korea, and Iran will build a $20 million satellite for
use in telecommunications and monitoring. The satellite
is expected to be launched by 2001. Tehran Radio said
representatives from the six participating nations were
meeting in Tehran for discussions on the satellite
program, which it said was initially agreed upon at a
meeting in Bangkok three months ago. Iran has offered to
build the ground antennae, batteries and satellite
stations. (Reuters)