U.S. Documents Describe Hazards at China’s Satellite Launch Center

China’s satellite launch center lacked basic safety features and posed a constant danger to U.S. technicians and to thousands of peasants living nearby, according to newly declassified White House documents.

The searing assessment of China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center was written by an engineer for the satellite consortium Intelsat, according to White House officials. Intelsat was using Chinese rockets to launch U.S.-built commercial satellites into orbit.

Chinese launch facilities “fell pathetically short of the world standard in most areas,” engineer Daniel Lilienstein wrote. “Every time you launch, you stand a good chance of killing someone,” he wrote, citing repeated mishaps that led to fatalities.

The report is potentially embarrassing to U.S. satellite makers, because it points to a willingness to put up with a highly risky operation in exchange for the lower launch prices charged by the Chinese.

The report followed the explosion of a Chinese Long March rocket that was carrying a satellite built by Loral Space & Communications Ltd. The February 1996 crash, which killed as many as 100 people, has become the center of a Justice Department criminal probe into whether a report on the accident given to China by U.S. satellite industry officials might have provided sensitive information to China’s missile program.