Sinosat-2, China’s first DBS satellite, suffers a failure

On November 28, 2006, Sino Satellite Communications Corporation (SinoSat) reported that its SinoSat-2 satellite, successfully launched on October 29, 2006, failed to complete the second deployment of its solar arrays and the deployment of its telecommunications antennae due to a technical failure during the positioning process, which resulted in the satellite’s inability to provide telecommunication and broadcasting services. The satellite is currently located near its predetermined orbital slot at 92.2°E, and all of the satellite platform’s other subsystems are working normally. The satellite manufacturer is performing further analyses to pin-point the most probable cause of the failure.