HONGKONG-based AsiaSat said yesterday it would launch its AsiaSat 2 satellite using China's Long March rocket.
AsiaSat becomes the first foreign company to say it would use the rocket since an Australian satellite was lost after being launched on a Long March rocket in December.
AsiaSat said it had signed its contract with the China Great Wall Industry Corporation, China's only commercial space venture, on Tuesday. The launch is set for the first quarter of 1995, slightly later than the 1994 launch that was expected.
There has yet to be any progress on finding why the Australian satellite, built by Hughes of the United States, failed to operate.
After the failure, analysts claimed that China's refusal to co-operate with Hughes to find the cause of the problem would damage its drive to establish itself as a launcher of Western satellites.
AsiaSat was unable to say yesterday why it had chosen Great Wall for its launch, against competition from the US, Russia and Europe.
After a lengthy battle to get permission to take its advanced satellite into China, AsiaSat became the first foreign company to have a satellite launched by Great Wall.
