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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