Twenty-three commercial geostationary-orbiting telecommunications satellites were ordered in 2008, a year that met the high industry expectations set for it and which featured the continued market presence of China and the entry of two relative unknowns in the commercial export business: Mitsubishi Electric Co. of Japan and ISS/Reshetnev - the former NPO-PM - of Russia. China Aerospace Corp. repeated a formula it applied in Nigeria and Venezuela to win the Paksat 1R order from Pakistan, a contract in which the satellite, a Chinese Long March rocket and an insurance package were bundled into the same offer. How many other nations that currently do not own satellites are willing to purchase the same package is unknown, especially since the Nigerian satellite suffered a major in-or-bit failure on its solar-array subsystem. The Chinese DFH-4 platform is thus apparendy not through with its early checkout.
展开▼
