Early Report Faults Hughes on Disclosure

WASHINGTON — A preliminary Defense Department assessment has concluded that Hughes Electronics Corp. provided China with information potentially damaging to U.S. national security following the 1995 crash of a Chinese rocket carrying a Hughes-built commercial satellite, administration officials said Tuesday.

The assessment, requested by two congressional committees investigating the transfer of sensitive space technology to China, found that Hughes officials told the Chinese it had traced the cause of the crash to problems with the rocket’s fairing, a heat-resistant shroud covering the satellite, officials said.

One official said the assessment, performed jointly by Air Force intelligence and the Defense Technology Security Administration, concluded Hughes “went well beyond what should have been allowed” by U.S. government agencies regulating such exchanges of technological advice.

The official said top Pentagon officials want additional questions answered before a final report is provided to Congress.

A Hughes spokesman said no one at the company has seen the Air Force report. But the spokesman, Don O’Neal, said Hughes “stands by the conclusion that we transferred to the Chinese no information that could be used to improve their ballistic missiles. . . . There’s a significant difference between intercontinental ballistic missiles and commercial rockets.”

The Justice Department began a criminal probe last year into the transfer of rocket technology data to the Chinese by Loral Space & Communications after the 1996 explosion of a Chinese rocket carrying a Loral satellite. The investigation was expanded this year to include the 1995 rocket explosion involving Hughes. Two congressional committees began parallel investigations this spring.