Intelsat 708

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 China. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and struck a hillside, right near the main gate of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, damaging buildings on the territory of the launch center and flattening the Mayelin 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 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 ITAR restrictions, blocking its export to China. In 2002, Space Systems/Loral paid to settle charges of violating export controls.

Background

After the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the US Government decided that commercial satellite payloads would not be launched on Space Shuttles, forcing satellite producers to use expendable rocket systems instead. At that time, China also began its entry into the international space market.

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 U.S. Department of Commerce between 1992 and 1996. The Intelsat 708 satellite was to be launched into geostationary orbit aboard a Long March 3B launch vehicle. It was also the maiden flight of the vehicle.

On December 21, 1992, the Optus-B2 satellite was launched into orbit aboard a Long March 2E rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. 45 seconds after liftoff, the rocket's fairing with the payload inside had collapsed, damaging the satellite. However, the damaged satellite debris was still transported into orbit, and tracking stations managed to receive signals from the spacecraft after several days.

On January 26, 1995, the Apstar 2 satellite was launched from LC-2 onboard a Long 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. Chinese officials stated that as the result of the failure, 6 villagers died and 23 were injured. It was later found that the cause of the failure was the payload fairing collapsing mid-flight due to structural deficiency. Chinese officials, however, blamed the satellite for the failure. 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.

The Mayelin village was created in the 1950s. The village bordered the launch center's main gate. In 1980 it was abolished for unknown reasons, however the village was later reestablished. At the moment of the Intelsat 708 launch, approximately 1000 or fewer people may lived in the village. Mayelin village was mostly populated by the Yi people and local farmers. The village was located between the launch centers main gate and the nearby town of Mayelin. Villages close to XSLC were being evacuated since the 1980s, according to the Chinese government.

Launch and the subsequent failure

The launch was planned for 2:51 on 15 February 1996. However, the launch was delayed to 3:00, a "luckier" number. The countdown began around 2:56, with the launch window opening at 2:51. The launch was being broadcast on CCTV and the live feed from the launch pad was being transmitted at the headquarters of Space Systems/Loral.

The Umbilical swing arms eventually opened, and at 3:01 AM (19:01 Beijing time), the Long March 3B with the Intelsat 708 satellite aboard began rising into the air, only to start inclining to the East just 2 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 was remotely detonated; seconds later, it hit a hillside and its propellant ignited into a massive explosion.

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. Ambulance sirens filled the air immediately after. American employees were kept inside a warehouse in the Technical Center of XSLC until 6 AM, when a bus arrived to the Technical Center to take the engineers back to Xichang.

Aftermath

The American engineers were brought back to Xichang on a bus, with the engineers seeing the damage inflicted on the nearby village along the way. Some engineers chose to go back to the US, however some were brought back to XSLC to collect satellite debris, with the path going through the same destroyed village. An engineer on the bus named Troy Wells recorded the ride and provided the recording to Space Systems Loral, with the tape being published along other recordings of the aftermath to YouTube in 2019. More footage of the incident was published to YouTube in 2025.

American engineers that were still at XSLC were gathered up and tasked with collecting satellite debris that was scattered all around the area after the blast, for it to be shipped back to the US and to prevent the Chinese from collecting sensitive components. It was later determined that encryption devices were not recovered from the crash site.U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AND MILITARY/COMMERCIAL CONCERNS WITH THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
/ref> However the satellite was surprisingly intact even after the explosion.

The nature and extent of the damage still 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. Western media also backed this claim up with recordings taken after the crash showcasing the nearby village that had almost been completely destroyed by the explosion. Approximately 80 houses were destroyed in Mayelin Village.

When reporters were being taken away from the site, they found that most houses in the bordering village had sustained critical damage or had been flattened completely. 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. Its been debated whether these trucks carried documents from the Coordination Building, since after the disaster Chinese employees of the launch center were gathered up in the Coordination Buildings courtyard to collect documents and other items from the building and put them into boxes and crates placed all around the courtyard.

Bruce Campbell of Astrotech and other American eyewitnesses in Xichang reported that the official death toll only reflected those in the military who were caught by the disaster and not the civilian population. 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.

Suspicions emerged in the West when on 23 March 1996, Channel 2 broadcast a recording of the aftermath of the disaster, recorded by an Israeli engineer present at the launch center. The recording showcased severe damage to the residential area of XSLC and the Mayelin Village. The Chinese government later denied the presence of an Israeli on-site during the launch of Intelsat-708. After the tape was aired, China revised the casualty number to 56, however nowadays Chinese officials still state that there were only 6 casualties. The original tape broadcast by Channel 2 remains partially lost. A tape of the incident compiled by Space Systems Loral employees surfaced on the internet in July 2019.

The Mayelin village that used to border the launch center was demolished after the disaster, leaving no trace of it ever existing behind.

Investigation

After the launch failure, the Chinese investigation found that the inertial measurement unit had failed because of a faulty wire. 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, 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. The Long March rocket family did not experience another mission failure until August 2011.

In 1997, the 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 in fines and compliance expenses to settle allegations of violating export control regulations.

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".

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. The Chinese government never elaborated on whether this could be an issue to local villagers in the future, however. They were initially reported by the U.S. Department of Defense monitor to have succeeded in recovering "the atellite'sencryption-decryption equipment". 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".

See also

* Nedelin disaster – a launch catastrophe at the Baikonur test range in the Soviet Union.
* Proton-M/DM-03 8K82 km/11S861-03 – a Proton launch vehicle that went out of control and flew horizontally before crashing.

References

* (Congressional report discussing Intelsat 708 launch failure and possible technology transfer)
* (Documents on Intelsat 708 and export controls, including State Department letter charging two companies with export law violations)
* (Article on the crash of a rocket carrying a commercial payload on 15 February 1996)
* (Chinese government report disputing conclusions of U.S. Congressional report)

External links

Footage of the disaster recorded and compiled by SSL employees
(in YouTube)

Video of the aftermath taken by an Israeli engineer
(in YouTube)

Additional footage of the crash and aftermath
(in Youtube)

{{Orbital launches in 1996

Satellite launch failures
Space program fatalities
Spacecraft launched in 1996
Intelsat satellites
1996 in China
Satellites using the SSL 1300 bus
Space missions that ended in failure