China First International Commercial Launch Success occurred on April 7th, 1990. This satellite had originally been launched by the Space Shuttle and retrieved by another Space Shuttle after a failure.
China’s entry into Commerical space due to the USA, but we need to start with Westar 6:
The satellite was originally designed by Hughes’ Space and Communications Group. It was one of three Hughes HS-376 model satellites, designated Westar 4, 5 and 6, for Western Union Telegraph Company.
Westar 6 was launched from the space shuttle mission STS-41-B on February 3, 1984, with a perigee kick motor (Payload Assist Module or “PAM”) to lift it to a higher orbit. The PAM-D is a modular upper stage designed and built by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing), using Thiokol Star-series solid propellant rocket motors. The PAM was used with multiple launch vehicles including the Space Shuttle, Delta, and Titan. PAM-D carried satellites from low Earth orbit to a geostationary transfer orbit or an interplanetary course.
The satellite was supposed to be delivered to a geosynchronous orbit. The Westar 6 PAM-D misfired and left the satellite stranded in a low orbit which was useless for the original design purpose. NASA was able to develop a rescue operation to retrieve the satellite from the improper and inoperable low Earth orbit. It was retrieved on November 16, 1984, by the STS-51-A mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle, where it was brought back to earth.
Westar 6 satellite while Dale Gardner retrieves it during STS-51-A. Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, wearing the manned maneuvering unit (MMU) approaching the spinning Westar VI satellite over Bahama Banks. Gardner uses a large tool called the apogee kick motor capture device (ACD) to enter the nozzle of the spent Westar engine and stabilize the satellite to capture it for return to Earth. Credit NASA
After Westar 6 was retrieved by shuttle astronauts in November 1984, the satellite was refurbished and was sold to the AsiaSat consortium and became AsiaSat 1.
NASA astronaut Dale Gardner holds up a “For Sale” sign in a nod to the malfunctioning satellites he and Joe Allen salvaged during space shuttle Discovery’s STS-51A mission in 1984. Credit NASA
Okay… so I get it AsiaSat 1 was Westar 6… so how did China get it?
When President Nixon agreed to allow NASA to develop and build the Space Shuttle, the business case was predicated on the use of the Space Shuttle to launch both people and cargo. It was thought that a lower cost Space Shuttle would service the needs of the US Military, NASA and the commercial sector. Satellites would be launched at a much lower cost… but The Space Shuttle design requirements to meet the U.S. Military needs drove additional complexity into the Space Shuttle. Design features that were not needed by NASA or commercial launch companies were added such as additional cross-range. These additional compromises coupled with budget limitations imposed by the U.S. Government resulted in the Space Shuttle that was much more costly than planned.
51L-10178 (28 Jan. 1986) — This photograph of the space shuttle Challenger accident Jan. 28, 1986 was taken by a 70mm tracking camera at UCS 15 south of Pad 39B, at 11:39:16.795 EST. Photo credit: NASA
In 1996, the unthinkable happened. During a launch, the Space Shuttle Challenger and the crew were lost. The tragic loss of the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 created a growing commercial backlog. NASA had originally wanted to utilize the Space Shuttle for launching all satellites as well as people into space to leverage the space shuttle as much as possible and lower costs. The reality that the Space Shuttle would be too costly and too risky for delivering satellites into space started to become a reality.
Based on the growing backlog, and shortcomings of the Space shuttle, U.S. President Ronald Reagan agreed to allow U.S satellites to be launched on Chinese rockets. China entered the commercial launch market based on the growing backlog of satellites. Two years after the agreement, China launched its first successful satellite.
| April 7, 1990 13:30 |
Long March 3 | F-07 | Xichang LA-3 | Successful | |
| AsiaSat 1 | Geosynchronous transfer | AsiaSat | Communication | ||
| First Chinese orbital launch for a foreign customer | |||||
China’s first launch was AsiaSat 1.
The Long March 3 (长征三号火箭 / Changzheng 3/ CZ-3/LM-3), was a Chinese orbital launcher rocket design. All were launched from Launch Area 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
The rocket was a 3-stage design and was mostly used to place DFH-2-class communications satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits. It was replaced by the more powerful Long March 3A, which has an improved third stage.
