Major Chinese Satellite Suffers Complete Failure

cyclone96 writes "China's most advanced satellite, the direct broadcast Sinosat 2, apparently suffered a major failure on orbit following launch on October 29. None of the solar arrays or antennas deployed on the spacecraft, and the Chinese are now mulling whether to destroy the spacecraft in the atmosphere. The article provides the following analysis: "The catastrophic breakdown of China's new Sinosat 2 direct broadcast satellite is the worst spacecraft failure in the history of the Chinese space program and a major setback to China's development of a new generation of larger, more powerful civilian and military satellites.""

Comments

wikipedia

[arun_s]

Slightly offtopic: I was searching for 'Sinosat' in Wikipedia, and came across this page. The outcome is already updated as 'Failure', with a reason given.
As a comparison, the article linked here at /. is dated 3rd December, and the wiki change was in the 2nd. I'm seriously impressed.

worst spacecraft failure involved loss of life

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd have thought that the worst spacecraft failure would be one that directly resulted in loss of life, like that rocket that veered off course and flew into a town a few years ago. I realize that the loss of a satellite might indirectly result in lost lives (or the lost opportunity to save lives), but I don't see how that can be compared with the direct death of many by a malfunctioning rocket.

Re:worst spacecraft failure involved loss of life

[Ginger Unicorn]

The problem here is the use of the word "worst". Worse and better are adjectives. You need a subject for them to be adjectives of. Perhaps it was the worst loss of financial investment. Perhaps it was the worst setback in terms of infrastructure to improve standards of living. It seems it wasn't the worst in terms of direct loss of life.

There is no meaningful "worst" in overall terms because there are so many independent apples and oranges metrics of which it could be the "worst".

Audiophile tastes aren't exactly a good metric...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

That's the same group that will spend money for a bottle of "magic pebbles" to put on top of an amplifier to improve sound quality. Green CD markers, specially "treated" digital clocks, megabuck speaker cables, wooden volume control knobs, and other assorted audiophool insanity have pretty much destroyed any credibility that "audiophiles" ever had as far as judging the objective worth of a product.

If the audiophool market is purchasing Chinese products, it is out of last resort. The Chinese are among the last countries still manufacturing some types of vacuum tubes used in high-end sound gear.