China to Orbit 2 Satellites for U.S. Company

China plans to launch two communications satellites for an American company before the end of next year, an official Chinese newspaper reported Monday.

Teresat Inc. of Houston and the China Great Wall Industry Corp., a division of China’s Astronautics Ministry, have signed a letter of intent for China to launch the satellites with Long March 3 rockets, the English-language China Daily reported.

The announcement follows a series of launch disasters in the U.S. space program. These include the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, which killed seven astronauts; the explosion of a Titan rocket April 18 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and the blowup of a Delta rocket May 3 at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Competitor Booked

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have said the earliest the shuttle will fly again is February, 1987. NASA’s primary competitor, Ariane, the European rocket consortium, is booked through 1988.

In Houston, Henry A. Schwartz, president of Teresat, said his company preferred using an American space shuttle to launch the satellites but that NASA “can’t give us a firm launch date.”

“The Chinese were selected because they have launched 18 satellites since 1972 with only one failure,” he said.

The Chinese newspaper report said the satellites scheduled to be launched are the Palapa B and Westar VI, which were recovered from faulty orbits by the space shuttle Discovery in 1984.

Teresat, a joint venture, is negotiating to buy the satellites from the Lloyd’s of London insurance firm, Schwartz said.

Amount Not Disclosed

One of the satellites will orbit over the United States to provide office buildings with high quality communications, the newspaper said. The other will be placed over the Pacific and used to aid airline traffic.

China will earn “a considerable amount of foreign exchange” for launching each of the satellites, Schwartz said, but he did not give an exact figure.