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.

The failure of this largest, most complex spacecraft ever developed by the Chinese--launched by China's most powerful rocket--portends a shakeup in the management of Chinese space system testing and quality control.

The spacecraft's solar arrays spanning more than 100 ft. and its large antennas all failed to deploy as Sinosat 2 was maneuvered toward its geosynchronous orbit station west of Sumatra.

Built by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a huge Chinese military and aerospace contractor, Sinosat 2 was to be operated by the Beijing-based Sino Satellite Communications Ltd. (Sinosat).

THE LOSS WILL SET back Chinese plans to deploy a domestically built spacecraft to deliver direct-to-home television services to millions of Chinese from Tibet in the west to the highly populated east coast.

Sinosat 2 was to transmit television signals to antennas as small as 18-in.-dia. and provide television and digital broadband multimedia services to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in addition to mainland China. It was also destined to provide television, for the first time, to China's vast rural population unable to access cable. Before launch, the Chinese estimated Sinosat 2 services by 2010 would reach 100 million households, the equivalent of 300-400 million people.

As a fallback, Sinosat plans to launch Sinosat 3, a much smaller and different type satcom next spring. But that satellite, to be based on a mid-1990s Chinese military satcom design, is not intended to be a complete backup to the capabilities of the more advanced spacecraft. Development of a full replacement will take three years.

To illustrate scale, if Sinosat 2 was unfolded at mid-floor of a basketball court, its solar arrays would have extended well past the baskets on either side with the center-mounted antennas extending to half the floor's width.

China is assessing whether to continue diagnostic testing with what little electricity remains, or to dive the 5-ton platform back into the atmosphere for a reentry that would prevent space debris and clear that slot for follow-on spacecraft.

Designed for 15 years of operations, Sinosat 2 began to fail after only about a week aloft in early November.