Developments in Brief : Chinese Will Launch Recovered Satellite

An American communications satellite that malfunctioned and was recovered from orbit by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in 1984 will be launched again, this time by the Chinese in May, 1988.

The satellite, owned by the Pan Am Pacific Satellite Corp., was originally placed in low-Earth orbit by the space shuttle Challenger in February, 1984. But it did not reach geosynchronous orbit because the booster rockets failed to fire. The satellite’s insurers paid NASA $11 million to recover it seven months later.

In announcing that the same satellite is now scheduled to be launched by a Long March CZ-3 rocket, Pan Am Pacific said the satellite would be the first American satellite to be placed in orbit by a Chinese rocket. But another communications satellite, owned by Western Union, is also scheduled to be launched by China during that month, and it is not clear which will be launched first.