Optus-B1/2/3 launches on Chinese rockets

[Shlug]

In 1991, the licenses for the launches of Australian satellites Optus-B1 and Optus-B2 were issued by the U.S. Department of State. These launches were to be made on the Long March 2E rockets, which at that time have only been launched once. Both launches would fail, one temporarily. Optus-B1 shut down on the pad, and Optus-B2 got pancaked due to the fairing being crushed 45 seconds in. Optus-B3 was launched in 1994 as a replacement for B2, being the last Optus satellite to be launched on a Chinese rocket.

[limen4]

It was a kind of hazard play. When the negotiations with Hughes for launch of Optus-B were finished end of October 1988, CZ-2E exists only as sketch.  And also the corresponding launch pad #2 at XSLC.
On July 16th 1990 the first CZ-2E was launched with a mass model of Optus-B and a small satellite from Pakistan onboard. In the recent years a tragic fact was issued by Chinese media. A first launch was planned already on July 9th. But during refuling yellow smoke appears on the first stage indicating a leck in a pipeline. The launch was  terminated and workers starts immediately with the repair in the 3 meters diameter first stage, surrounded by yellow toxic hypergolic propellant and protected by special cloathing and respirator. Nevertheless one worker died.

[Shlug]

A similiar accident happened during the first launch attempt of Optus-B1, however this time it could've ended much worse.
Approximately 1-2 seconds into the launch the rocket's engines shut off, with the hypergolic fuels still being released. The rocket barely lifted off an inch.
The biggest issue at that moment was the fact that the rockets engines were still burning, which could've caused the hypergolic propellant to ignite and explode, destroying the launchpad rocket and satellite and possibly injuring observers nearby.
Workers had to go to the launchpad and prevent a disaster themselves. Later the cause of the unexpected shutdown was traced to a tiny shard of metal that got into one of the engines, triggering an emergency shutdown. The 2nd launch attempt went succesful.

[limen4]

Despite the many setbacks there have been plans to develop the CZ-2E further on. One plan was a version CZ-2E/HO, where the cryogenic upper stage of the CZ-3 was added. Instead the opposite way was selected finally and the CZ-3 (later CZ-3A) was added with the CZ-2E strapons, which leads to the CZ-3B.
Another plan was a version called CZ-2E/TS, with a solid propellant upper stage for launching multiple satellites into polar orbit from Jiuquan.
But at the end the whole CZ-2E program was terminated in favour of the CZ-2F for future manned space flights.

[Shlug]

The launch failure of Optus-B2 caused some controversy regarding the fairing integrity on CZ-2E rockets. The fairing got crushed by aerodynamic forces 45 seconds into launch, causing major damage to the satellite. The investigation later determined the cause of the failure to be poor construction of the fairing, with Hughes recommending the Chinese to improve on it to prevent such failures from happening again. This incident was also mentioned in the Cox Report along with Apstar 2 and Intelsat 708.