Intelsat 708: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Chinese failed satellite launch in 1996}}{{Unreliable sources|date=November 2020}}

| name = Intelsat 708

| names_list = IS 708<br/>

| image =

| image_caption = The [[Long March 3B]] rocket carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite begins to deviate from its course immediately after launch.

| image_size = 300px

| mission_type = [[Communications satellite|Communications]]

| operator = [[Intelsat]]

| COSPAR_ID =

| SATCAT =

| mission_duration = 15 years (planned)<br/>Failed to orbit

| spacecraft_type = [[Intelsat VII-A]]

| spacecraft_bus = [[SSL 1300|LS-1300]]

| manufacturer = [[SSL (company)|Space Systems/Loral]]

| launch_mass = {{cvt|4180|kg}}

| dimensions =

| power = <!-- [[watt]]s -->

| launch_date = 15 February 1996 03:00

| launch_rocket = [[Long March 3B]]

| launch_site = [[Xichang Satellite Launch Center|Xichang]], [[Xichang Launch Complex 2|LC-2]]

| launch_contractor = [[China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation|China Great Wall Industry Corporation]]

| orbit_reference = [[Geocentric orbit]] (planned)

| orbit_regime = [[Geostationary orbit]]

| orbit_longitude =

| orbit_slot =

| apsis = gee

| trans_band = 26 [[C band (IEEE)|C-band]]<br/>14 [[Ku band|Ku-band]]

| trans_frequency =

| trans_bandwidth =

| trans_capacity =

| trans_coverage =

| trans_TWTA =

| trans_EIRP =

| trans_HPBW =

| programme = ''Intelsat VII''

| previous_mission = [[Intelsat 707|Intelsat VII-F7]]

| next_mission = [[Intelsat 709|Intelsat VII-F9]]

'''Intelsat 708''' was a [[telecommunications satellite]] built by the American company [[Space Systems/Loral]] for [[Intelsat]]. It was destroyed on 15 February 1996 when the [[Long March 3B]] [[launch vehicle]] failed while being launched from the [[Xichang Satellite Launch Center]] in [[People's Republic of China|China]]. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and struck a nearby village, killing at least six people.

The accident investigation identified a failure in the guidance system of the Long March 3B. After the Intelsat 708 accident, the [[Long March (rocket family)|Long March rockets]] did not experience another mission failure until 2011. However, the participation of American companies in the Intelsat 708 and [[Apstar 2]] investigations caused political controversy in the [[United 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 under [[International Traffic in Arms Regulations#Satellite components|ITAR restrictions]], blocking its export to China. In 2002, Space Systems/Loral paid {{Currency|20 million|USD|passthrough=yes}} to settle charges of violating [[export controls]].<ref name="zinger2014"/>

In 1992 and 1993, [[Space Systems/Loral]] received licenses from the [[United States Department of State]] to launch [[Intelsat]] satellites on Chinese rockets. At that time, satellite components were still under [[International Traffic in Arms Regulations]] (ITAR); they would be transferred in stages to the [[United States Department of Commerce|U.S. Department of Commerce]] between 1992 and 1996.<ref name="zinger2014">{{Cite journal |last1=Zinger |first1=Kurtis J. |date=26 October 2014 |title=An Overreaction that Destroyed an Industry: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Satellite Export Controls |url=http://lawreview.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/13.-86.1-Zinger_Final.pdf |url-status=live |journal=University of Colorado Law Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920194824/http://lawreview.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/13.-86.1-Zinger_Final.pdf |archive-date=20 September 2023 }}</ref> The Intelsat 708 satellite was to be launched into geostationary orbit aboard a [[Long March 3B]] launch vehicle.

On 15 February 1996, the Long March 3B launch vehicle failed during launch, veering off course immediately after liftoff and crashing into a village near the launch site (probably Mayelin Village).<ref name="ChenLan2">{{Cite web |last=Lan |first=Chen |date=8 July 2013 |title=Mist around the CZ-3B disaster, Part 2 |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2326/1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140831221614/http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2326/1 |archive-date=31 August 2014 |publisher=The Space Review }}</ref> An enormous explosion destroyed most of the rocket and killed an unknown number of inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.house.gov/coxreport/body/ch6bod.html|title=Satellite Launches in the PRC|access-date=23 May 2012 |author=Select Committee of the United States House of Representatives|date=3 January 1999|publisher=U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051110020454/http://www.house.gov/coxreport/body/ch6bod.html|archive-date=10 November 2005|url-status=dead}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

The nature and extent of the damage remain a subject of dispute. The Chinese government, through its official [[Xinhua]] 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.<ref name="ChenLan1"/> When reporters were being taken away from the site, they found that most buildings had sustained serious damage or had been flattened completely.<ref name="ChenLan1">{{Cite web |last=Lan |first=Chen |date=1 July 2013 |title=Mist around the CZ-3B disaster, Part 1 |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2323/1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140118074016/http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2323/1 |archive-date=18 January 2014 |access-date=18 January 2014 |publisher=The Space Review }}</ref> 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.<ref name="ChenLan1"/>

Bruce Campbell of [[Astrotech Corporation|Astrotech]] 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.<ref name="zak2013">{{Cite magazine |last1=Zak |first1=Anatoly |date=February 2013 |title=Disaster at Xichang |url=http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/disaster-at-xichang-2873673/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118235406/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/disaster-at-xichang-2873673/ |archive-date=18 January 2022 |magazine=[[Air & Space/Smithsonian|Air & Space Magazine]] }}</ref> However, Chen Lan writing in ''The 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.<ref name="ChenLan2"/>

After the launch failure, the Chinese investigation found that the [[inertial measurement unit]] had failed. However, the [[satellite insurance]] companies insisted on an Independent Review Committee (IRC) as a condition of providing insurance for future Chinese satellite launches. Loral, [[Hughes Aircraft Company#Hughes Space and Communications Group|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 the [[inertial measurement unit]]. The Chinese report was then changed to match the findings of the Review Committee.<ref name="zinger2014"/> The Long March rocket family did not experience another mission failure until August 2011.

In 1997, the [[Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs|U.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 paid {{Currency|20 million|USD|passthrough=yes}} in fines and compliance expenses to settle allegations of violating export control regulations.<ref name="zinger2014"/>{{Rp|page=366}}

No export licenses to China have been issued since 1996, and an official at the [[Bureau 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".<ref name="selding2016">{{Cite news |last1=de Selding |first1=Peter B. |date=14 April 2016 |title=U.S. ITAR satellite export regime's effects still strong in Europe |url=https://spacenews.com/u-s-itar-satellite-export-regimes-effects-still-strong-in-europe/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240201155607/https://spacenews.com/u-s-itar-satellite-export-regimes-effects-still-strong-in-europe/ |archive-date=1 February 2024 |work=[[SpaceNews]] }}</ref>

Intelsat 708 contained sophisticated communications and [[encryption]] 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 requiring [[oxygen therapy]]. They were initially reported by the [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]] monitor to have succeeded in recovering "the [satellite's] encryption-decryption equipment".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.house.gov/coxreport/chapfs/ch7.html|title=U.S. House COX report, Chapter 7 Contents|access-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021092423/http://www.house.gov/coxreport/chapfs/ch7.html|archive-date=21 October 2016|url-status=dead}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> 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, the [[National 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. House COX report, Chapter 6 |url=http://www.house.gov/coxreport/body/ch6bod.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051110020454/http://www.house.gov/coxreport/body/ch6bod.html |archive-date=10 November 2005 |publisher=Select Committee of the United States House of Representatives }} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

* [[Nedelin disaster]] – a launch catastrophe at the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome|Baikonur test range]] in the [[Soviet Union]].

* [[List of Proton launches (2010–2019)#2013|Proton-M/DM-03 8K82 km/11S861-03]] –a[[Proton (rocket family)|Proton]] launch vehicle that went out of control and flew horizontally before crashing.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJ9ue6GKek Raw footage of the disaster]

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZTFgZ9zl74&t=170s Extra footage of the disaster] (in YouTube)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtSwQkybVw Video of the launch, impact, and viewofthe resulting explosion] (inYouTube)