Commercial Launch Services
China markets launch services under the China Great Wall Industry Corporation. Its efforts to launch communications satellites were dealt a blow in the mid-1990s after the United States stopped issuing export licenses to companies to allow them to launch on Chinese launch vehicles out of fear that this would help China's military. In the face of this, Thales Alenia Space built the Chinasat-6B satellite with no components from the United States whatsoever. This allowed it to be launched on a Chinese launch vehicle without violating U.S. ITAR restrictions. The launch, on a Long March 3B rocket, was successfully conducted on July 5, 2007. A Chinese Long March 2D launched Venezuela’s VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite 1) ‘Francisco de Miranda’ on 29 September 2012.
Read more about this topic: Long March (rocket Family)
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