Summary of articles in English published on September 13, 2010 in Space News by Peter B. Seldinger
A new Chinese communications satellite, ChinaSat -6A or Sinosat-6 has a helium leak in its pressurization system which will likely require ground equipment to resort to extreme measures to put in orbit and to reduce life, officials said on 10 September charged. The satellite was launched by a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Space Center in southwestern Sichuan province at 1614 GMT (24:14 GMT) on September 4, 2010.
The SinoSat -6, was designed to last 15 years in geostationary orbit and is based on satellite communications platform DFH-4, aiming to provide services radio and television programming to customers throughout China especially in remote and mountainous regions, through 24 C-band transponders, eight Ku-band transponders and one S-band . The satellite was built by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp ys eria operated by China Satellite Communications Corp .
E l satellite was insured for U.S.. $ 200 million for a total loss, partial loss-there is a proportional representation in most cases, this malfunction will result in an insurance claim is estimated at about U.S.. $ 60 million, according to an industry official.
The failure of the satellite, which officials say has nothing to do with the Chinese launch vehicle Long March 3B also further undermines the reputation of the DFH-4 satellite platform that uses Sinosat-6. The platform, presented last five years, suffered failures Sinosat-2 orbit and the satellite NIGCOMSAT-1 from Nigeria. DH-4, developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, China is the platform for export satellites.
The two previous failures DFH-4 platform are attributable to failures in power system solar energy, while the Sinosat-6 the problem is that it can deliver maximum helium pressure fuel tank of the satellite. A similar type of emission reduced by about a third of the lifespan of Hispasat's Amazonas satellite owned by Spain.
(*) Note that this platform is the one that bought the government of Venezuela and was named Venesat Bolivar-1-1, which was released on October 29, 2009 almost a year its launch, little is known about its operation and there are many doubts about its actual operational capabilities. Also, this same DFH-4 satellite platform was recently acquired by the Bolivian government to China, for Tupac Katari communications satellite to be in operation by 2012 or so (the truth I would be more than concerned about a purchase as well).
must be noted that in the case of failure, not only attempts to quantify the economic loss if the cost of the satellite, but there is an intangible cost, which is related to the late years of the capacity communicate to any one country, the cost is really incalculable and a millionaire. In the case of NIGCOMSAT-1 from Nigeria, China will build a new satellite to replace the failed, but this will take additional 3 years, which in development and technological terms, it is a lot.
MORAL: Do not risk your future on questionable technology.
(*) are thanked for their dissemination.
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