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 The impact site | |
| Names | IS 708 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Communications |
| Operator | Intelsat |
| Mission duration | 15 years (planned) Failed to orbit |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Intelsat VII-A |
| Bus | LS-1300 |
| Manufacturer | Space Systems/Loral |
| Launch mass | 4,180 kg (9,220 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 15 February 1996 03:00 |
| Rocket | Long March 3B |
| Launch site | Xichang,LC-2 |
| Contractor | China Great Wall Industry Corporation |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit (planned) |
| Regime | Geostationary orbit |
| Transponders | |
| Band | 26C-band 14Ku-band |
Intelsat VII | |
Intelsat 708 was atelecommunications satellite built by the American companySpace Systems/Loral forIntelsat. It was destroyed on 15 February 1996 when theLong March 3Blaunch vehicle failed while being launched from theXichang Satellite Launch Center inChina. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and struck a hillside, right near the main gate of theXichang Satellite Launch Center, damaging buildings on the territory of the launch center and flattening the Mayelin Village, killing at least six people (outside estimates suggest that fatalities could be in the hundreds).[1]
The accident investigation identified a failure in the guidance system of the Long March 3B. After the Intelsat 708 accident, theLong March rockets did not experience another mission failure until 2011. However, the participation of American companies in the Intelsat 708 andApstar 2 investigations caused political controversy in theUnited States. A U.S. government investigation found that the information in the report had been illegally transferred to China. Satellite technology was subsequently reclassified as a munition and placed underITAR restrictions, blocking its export to China. In 2002, Space Systems/Loral paidUS$20 million to settle charges of violatingexport controls.[2]
In 1992 and 1993,Space Systems/Loral received licenses from theUnited States Department of State to launchIntelsat satellites on Chinese rockets. At that time, satellite components were still underInternational Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR); they would be transferred in stages to theU.S. Department of Commerce between 1992 and 1996.[2] The Intelsat 708 satellite was to be launched into geostationary orbit aboard aLong March 3B launch vehicle.
On January 26, 1995, theApstar 2 satellite was launched from LC-2 onboard aLong March 2E launch vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. After flying for 51 seconds, the vehicle suddenly erupted into flames and exploded, the debris falling on nearby villages.[3] Chinese officials stated that in the result of the failure, 6 mountain villagers died and 23 were injured.[4] After the incident, Intelsat and SSL officials forbid employees from observing launches from the roof of the hotel building, a decision that may have saved a lot of lives in the future.[5]
The launch was planned for 2:51 on the 15th of February 1996, however the launch was delayed to 3:00, a "lucky" number. The countdown began somewhere at 2:56.[5]
At 3:00 AM, the Long March 3B with the Intelsat 708 satellite aboard began rising, only to start inclining left just 3 seconds into lift-off. The rocket flew over the umbilical tower and started turning horizontal in the air while flying towards the residential area of XSLC. 22 seconds later, the rocket hit a hillside and erupted into a massive explosion, the overstressed payload section getting ripped off the rocket seconds before.[5][1]
The shockwave of the explosion destroyed windows in nearby buildings and in the Technical Centre of XSLC, where American engineers were observing the launch from. Almost instantly after the explosion, the lights in the Mission Control & Command center went out.
The nature and extent of the damage remain a subject of dispute. The Chinese government, through its officialXinhua news agency, reported that six people were killed and 57 injured. Western media speculated that between a few dozen and 500 people might have been killed in the crash; "dozens, if not hundreds" of people were seen to gather outside the centre's main gate near the crash site the night before launch.[5][6] When reporters were being taken away from the site, they found that most buildings had sustained serious damage or had been flattened completely.[6][5] Some eyewitnesses were noted as having seen dozens of ambulances and many flatbed trucks, loaded with what could have been human remains, being taken to the local hospital.[6][5]Bruce Campbell ofAstrotech and other American eyewitnesses in Xichang reported that the satellite post-crash was surprisingly intact, along with the opinion that the official death toll only reflects those in the military who were caught by the disaster and not the civilian population. In the years to follow, the village that used to border the launch center has vanished, with little trace it ever existed.[5] However, Chen Lan writing inThe Space Review later said the total population of the village was under 1000, and that most if not all of the population had been evacuated before launch as had been common practice since the 1980s, making it "very unlikely" that there were hundreds of deaths.[1] Suspicions emerged in the West when on the 23rd of March 1996,Channel 2 broadcast a videotape of the aftermath of the disaster, recorded by an Israeli engineer present at the launch.[6] The videotape showed severe damage to the residential area of XSLC and the Mayelin Village. After the tape was aired, China revised the casualty number to 56, however nowadays Chinese officials still state that there were only 6 casualties.[7]
After the launch failure, the Chinese investigation found that theinertial measurement unit had failed. However, thesatellite insurance companies insisted on an Independent Review Committee (IRC) as a condition of providing insurance for future Chinese satellite launches. Loral,Hughes, and other U.S. aerospace companies participated in the Review Committee, which issued a report in May 1996 that identified a different cause of the failure in theinertial measurement unit. The Chinese report was then changed to match the findings of the Review Committee.[2] The Long March rocket family did not experience another mission failure until August 2011.
In 1997, theU.S. Defense Technology Security Administration found that China had obtained "significant benefit" from the Review Committee and could improve their "launch vehicles ... ballistic missiles and in particular their guidance systems". In 1998, the U.S. Congress reclassified satellite technology as a munition that was subject to ITAR, returning export control from the Commerce Department to the State Department. In 2002, Loral paidUS$20 million in fines and compliance expenses to settle allegations of violating export control regulations.[2]: 366
No export licenses to China have been issued since 1996, and an official at theBureau of Industry and Security emphasized in 2016 that "no U.S.-origin content, regardless of significance, regardless of whether it's incorporated into a foreign-made item, can go to China".[8]
Intelsat 708 contained sophisticated communications andencryption technology. Members of the Loral security team searched the toxic environment around the crash site to recover sensitive components, returning with complaints of bulging eyes and severe headaches requiringoxygen therapy. They were initially reported by theU.S. Department of Defense monitor to have succeeded in recovering "the [satellite's] encryption-decryption equipment".[9] The most sensitive FAC-3R circuit boards were not recovered, but "were mounted near the hydrazine propellant tanks and most likely were destroyed in the explosion... Because the FAC-3R boards on Intelsat 708 were uniquely keyed, theNational Security Agency (NSA) remains convinced that there is no risk to other satellite systems, now or in the future, resulting from having not recovering the FAC-3R boards from the PRC".[10]
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. (Congressional report discussing Intelsat 708 launch failure and possible technology transfer)