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Launch Partial Failure
Liftoff Time (GMT)
10:27:00
Sunday August 18, 1996
Third stage engine shut down 48 seconds too early.
ChinaSat 7 or ZX 7 (Zhongxing 7) is a Hughes HS-376 model geostationary telecommunications satellite built for the China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corporation (ChinaSat). It was the first satellite ChinaSat had ordered from a western spacecraft contractor, Hughes Space and Communications International, Inc., known today as Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc. ChinaSat 7 was built to carry voice, fax, data, television signals, and other communications services across China and portions of Southeast Asia for ChinaSat, which is a division of China's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The spacecraft was manufactured at the Hughes Space and Communications Company facilities in El Segundo, Calif. ChinaSat 7 carried 24 active transponders (with six spares) operating in the C-band (6/4 GHz) and extended C-band (3.6 GHz) frequency range, powered by 16-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers. Four channels had 72 MHz of bandwidth each, and the remaining 20 had 36 MHz capacity each. Radiated power over China was to have averaged 37 dBW.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
1 Payload
1,384 kilograms
Manufacturer
CASCRocket
Height: 46.6m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 5,000 kg
GTO: 1,500 kg
Liftoff Thrust
2,804 Kilonewtons
Fairing
Diameter: 3m
Height: 7.27m
Stages
3
14th
Mission
3rd
Mission of 1996
52nd
Orbital launch attempt