ChinaSat-18 has been declared a total loss with an impact on the insurance industry of some $250 million (€226.4m).

The satellite, the first in a new generation of craft to serve the Chinese DTH market, was launched on August 19th from the Xichang space centre in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The rocket appeared to work correctly, and initial reports were very slow to materialise and 24 hours later and the Chinese were admitting abnormalities.

The Chinese-built High Throughput satellite and is the first to use the enhanced DFH-4E satellite core and was designed for a 15-year lifetime in orbit.  It was equipped with both Ku and Ka-band technology.

It seems the satellite’s important solar panels failed to deploy. The craft was insured via the China People’s Property Insurance which was the chief underwriter for the satellite.

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