The release sought by Commerce and requested by Hughes officials would have been possible by reclassifying the technical material from munitions-related information to a commodity.

Such a reclassification would have eased the restrictions upon who would have access to the documents following their release.

According to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., a copy of the letter written by Hughes requesting the release of the information was sent to the State and Defense Department, who objected to the reclassification.

The Defense Department urged that the data, consisting of technical descriptions of telemetry, tracking, satellite system engineering data, spacecraft fuel and power allocations for the satellite, and reliability analysis be required to have its own export license under the munitions laws.

The requirement imposed tighter controls over the material, and also required the drafting of a technology transfer plan to assure the defense department that potentially sensitive satellite technology would not be transferred to the Chinese and also imposing other monitoring and restrictions over the information exchange.

As a result of Defense objections, the Commerce Department modified the license for the data to place some information under the munitions law requirement.

Republicans on Cochran's Government Affairs Committee suggested today that the Commerce Department's attempted reclassification of the data showed that it was more lax about exports of satellite and space technology to China than the State Department.

The Clinton administration transferred jurisdiction over satellite exports to Commerce from State in 1996, following a proposal made in the last days of the Bush administration.

Frank W. Miller, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Commerce Under Secretary for Export Administration William Reinsch both said today that the reclassification would not have resulted in any greater risk of technology transfer to the Chinese.

Miller said, "The procedures that are now in place are adequate to protect our national security."

But Miller was forced to admit that a report on a Chinese space launch accident investigation that occurred in 1995 wasn't made available to the Defense Department until today.

Miller said that the Defense Department wasn't able to tell if any sensitive information concerning the failure of the Chinese rocket carrying the Hughes-made Apstar 1 was contained in the 1995 accident analysis.

"This only reached my desk at noon today," Miller added. The review of the 1995 accident was conducted by Hughes engineers in response to a satellite insurance industry request.

A Justice Department investigation is underway to review whether a similar accident report by Loral Corp. on a February 1996 Chinese rocket explosion passed sensitive rocket technology to the Chinese that might have improved their ballistic missile programs.

-- Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --

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