French satellite operator Eutelsat Communications Group SA has purchased precedent-setting insurance enabling it to use Chinese rockets for future launches, according to company and industry officials.

Covering as many as nine satellites, the insurance package is the first time since the 1990s that China's Long March rocket has been designated to put a large telecommunications satellite into orbit for a mainstream Western operator.

Eutelsat has secured insurance that enables it to use more Chinese rockets, such as the Long March, to launch its satellites. Eutelsat says it has merely put in place an option for a single satellite launch by China in the 2010 time frame, but industry officials said the company's long-term satellite-construction and insurance plans suggest Europe's second-largest satellite operator is committed to eventual broader use of China's state-run rocket industry.

Eutelsat for years has been trying to find a way to penetrate the Chinese market, and launch contracts are widely seen as one way to help reach that goal. Chinese launchers cost about $50 million apiece, or roughly half of the average U.S. or European heavy-lift rocket launch.

Eutelsat's plans were reported Friday by the publication Space News. A Eutelsat spokeswoman said Friday that the insurance package gives the company added flexibility in terms of launchers, "allowing it the possibility to use all the launchers available on the market," including Long March. She added that "the number of satellites covered by this policy has enabled Eutelsat to obtain better financial conditions than those currently in the market." Eutelsat hasn't signed a firm contract for a Long March launch. A U.S. spokesman for France's Thales SA, which heads the European joint venture building the satellite slated for the Long March, said Friday there is a nondisclosure agreement with Eutelsat covering the satellite.