U.S. government plays down coding device loss in China
Copyright 1998 Nando.net
Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON (June 24, 1998 8:57 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The
State Department Wednesday took a low-key approach to the loss of a
coding device in the 1996 crash of a U.S. satellite launched in China,
saying it was old technology that posed little risk to national
security.
Spokesman James Rubin did not rule out that Chinese officials might have
removed the device after the crash of the communications satellite
seconds after launch, but said it might also have been destroyed on
impact.
"There is some chance that a third party could examine recovered devices
to gain some knowledge," Rubin told a news briefing. "But we believe
that the impact on national security would not be significant.
"We are not talking about the technology that is used by American
military satellites," he added. "The encryption device involved here is
decades-old, and even if reverse-engineered, would only tell somebody
where we were decades ago."
A Chinese Long March 3B rocket was carrying the satellite for the global
consortium Intelsat, when it crashed about 20 seconds after launch in
China's central Sichuan province in February 1996. Chinese officials
admitted at the time to four people killed and about 100 injured by the
debris.
Rubin said that after the crash, the satellite's command processor boxes
were recovered, "but not all of the circuit boards which contained the
encryption information" used to send coded operating instructions to the
satellite in orbit.
The loss of the missing device was raised on Tuesday at a joint hearing
of the House of Representatives National Security and International
Relations Committees, at which officials from several government
departments gave testimony.
Rubin said the encryption involved embedded single-chip devices unique
to that particular satellite, and older algorithms no longer used in
newer satellites.
"Therefore, any loss of the chips and associated encryption algorithms
would have had only minimal impact," he said.
"Our requirement was to ensure that the control of the satellite remain
protected to prevent denial of service. The loss of this particular
device at the time of launch, therefore, had no consequent risk to other
communications or control of other satellites."
But Rubin said that in continuing discussions with the Chinese about
satellite launching, "we will want to find out what happened to this
chip."
Asked whether the Chinese might have removed the board, he said: "I'm
not ruling anything out ... We know that it wasn't there, and whether it
was destroyed or whether it was removed is an open question."
The disclosure about the missing encryption device added to a raging
controversy in the United States about the use of Chinese rockets to
launch American satellites.
The Justice Department is already investigating the 1996 crash and
whether Hughes Electronics Corp. and Loral Space & Communications Ltd.
illegally gave China sensitive data. Loral manufactured the satellite
involved.
The investigation has focused on a report by the two companies analyzing
the crash that was sent to the Chinese without the U.S. government's
approval.
The Justice Department said on Wednesday it was also reviewing a
previous Chinese rocket-launch crash in 1995 as part of its
investigation into the 1996 incident.
The 1995 case concerned technical data Hughes gave to China after a
Chinese rocket carrying a Hughes-made telecommunications satellite
exploded shortly after launch.
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday pursued its own
investigation into possible transfers of sensitive information to China,
hearing testimony at a closed session from Central Intelligence Agency,
State Department and other officials.
Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, said
later: "It is clear there were some serious problems with how U.S.
companies interacted with Chinese launch service providers ... I was
very disturbed by a number of things I heard today." He gave no details.
By Patrick Worsnip, Reuters News Service
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