Lagos — The N40 billion Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) designed, developed, manufactured and launched by the Chinese is the second Chinese-made satellite to fail in orbit in two years.

NigComSat, which was launched with fanfare just 18 months ago in China, has become the second out of four satellites launched so far by the Chinese to have failed and both failures have involved the electrical systems on the satellite.

THISDAY has gathered that China's first DFH-4 satellite also failed in orbit in late 2006. NigComSat is the second DFH-4 satellite built by the Chinese.

China's first DFH-4 satellite called SinoSat 2 designed to provide Chinese communication services to the Pacific also failed in orbit and was described as the worst in-space breakdown suffered by the Chinese.

Chinese officials had in November 2006 confirmed that SinoSat 2, a new communication satellite which it launched October same year, had failed and would have to be replaced.

Sinosat-2 was launched October 29, but one of the spacecraft's solar panels apparently failed to deploy properly, depriving the spacecraft of the power needed to operate. The officials had also disclosed then that a replacement for SinoSat-2 would take at least three years to build and launch.

The DFH-4 bus is a high-power system developed to form a foundation for new Chinese civil and military communication satellites as well as foreign sales.

THISDAY gathered that the NigcomSat1, a communication satellite which is now missing in orbit, might have been built to fail from the very beginning. This is because its manufactured mechanical components from the start had issues.

A few months after its launch, the International Communications Union was said to have written to Nigerian authorities alerting them of the fact that NigComSat was not sitting in its expected position in orbit.

Since positioning is critical, that singular fact showed that it was a matter of time before things go awry. If NigComSat could not stay in its exact position and it could not be maneuvered to stay in its proper place, it meant there was no control and it was only a matter of time before it will go burst.

Following THISDAY's report that the satellite was missing in orbit, the Federal Government had said it "parked due to loss of energy" as it was not being recharged.

The management of NigComSat had also admitted that the satellite was experiencing technical problems due to a fault with the Solar Panel causing outage.

The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr. Alhassan Zaku, had informed Nigerians that the satellite developed a technical fault that resulted in the inability of the operational batteries to be charged by the solar panels.

The Voice of America (VOA) reported at the weekend that the satellite had fallen out of space.