Chinese Rocket Launches Satellite to Wrong Orbit

Breaking a 13-year streak of successful launches, a Chinese Long March rocket failed to deliver an Indonesian communications satellite to its planned orbit Monday.

Carrying the Palapa D telecommunications satellite, a Long March 3B rocket blasted offfrom the Xichang launch base in southwestern China at 0928 GMT (5:28 a.m. EDT) Monday.

The three-stage launcher, boosted by four liquid-fueled strap-on engines, flew as expected during the first few minutes of the flight.

But a failure occurred about 20 minutes after liftoff as the third stage was scheduled to ignite for its second burn of the mission, according to the official state-run Xinhua news agency.

The third stage is powered by two YF-75 engines fueled by a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, according to China Great Wall Industry Corp., the international marketing arm of the country's launch industry.

The engines apparently completed the first of two burns to place the rocket and Palapa D into a parking orbit.

Xinhua reported the third stage encountered problems during the second ignition, but it was not clear if the engines failed to fire or shut down early.

"Experts are investigating," the Xinhua report said.

The 41-foot-long third stage produces about 35,000 pounds of thrust in flight, first to send payloads into low-altitude parking orbits and then to propel spacecraft into egg-shaped geosynchronous transfer orbits. link...