Sea launch
| Sea Launch SA
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1995 |
| Seat | Nyon , Switzerland |
| management | Sergey Gugkaev (CEO), Vladimir Solntsev (President) |
| Branch | Space travel |
| Website | www.sea-launch.com |
Sea Launch is a private Swiss space company that marketed rocket launches from a specially adapted drilling platform near the equator. The launch was from 1999 to 2014 with Zenit-3SL launchers ; this is a Zenit-2 with a block DM upper stage and some modifications for launching from sea. A total of 33 payloads with masses of up to six tons were carried in geotransfer orbits (GTO) with this rocket .
Sea Launch shut down its ships in 2014 and has since ceased all operations. The background to this is that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine means that Zenit missiles are no longer available for the company. Plans to dispose of company assets followed, and Sea Launch investors battled legal responsibility for unpaid outstanding debts to Boeing. In September 2016, the South Korean S7 Group , owner of S7 Airlines, announced that it was taking over Sea Launch. After the two Sea Launch ships were moved from California to Vladivostok , the chairman of the S7 group said the program had been suspended indefinitely.
Background, predecessor, similar projects
Sea Launch was not the first launch platform to be deployed on the surface of the sea. In the 1960s, the Italy- operated San Marco platform for the launch of scout and sounding rockets was anchored off the coast of Kenya . Several missile tests were carried out on the jack-up platform "Barbara" on behalf of the German Armed Forces in the early 1970s .
Russia's cosmodromes have the disadvantage compared to space stations near the equator that a rocket launched there can carry less payload into a GTO with the same power. This is because, on the one hand, additional changes to the orbit (adjustments to the orbit plane) are required, and on the other hand, far from the equator, the rotation speed of the earth provides a lower part of the speed required for an orbit . Therefore, stronger rocket engines and more fuel per kilogram of payload are required, or the payload of a particular carrier is reduced accordingly. It was necessary to compensate for this cost-driving disadvantage of the location of the otherwise competitive Russian launch vehicle systems.
Creation and history of Sea Launch
After the first studies in 1993, the Sea Launch project came into being in 1995 . The next four years were used to build the infrastructure. The command ship “Sea Launch Commander” was built and the launch platform “Odyssey” was created from a disused oil drilling platform. "Sea Launch Commander" and "Odyssey" were stationed in Long Beach , California . The first flight with a dummy satellite took place in March 1999, the first commercial flight followed in October of the same year.
Sea Launch was founded in 1995 as an international consortium of four companies: Boeing ( USA , 40% stake), responsible for payloads and take-offs, RKK Energija ( Russia , 25%), manufacturer of the block DM upper level, KB Juschnoje / Juschmasch ( Ukraine , 15%), manufacturer of the Zenit, and Aker Kvaerner ( Norway , 20%), responsible for the launch platform “Odyssey” and the command ship “Sea Launch Commander” .
NSS 8 failed to start in January 2007
When attempting to launch the NSS-8 communications satellite on January 30, 2007, a Zenit 3SL launcher exploded directly on the “Odyssey” launch platform. The cause of the explosion was a metal part in a fuel pump. No one was injured in the process, as the crew withdraws to the “Sea Launch Commander” during take-off. The platform suffered limited damage in the process, but was manned by the full crew again on February 1, 2007. The picture published by Sea Launch on February 3rd shows the platform in a largely intact condition, leaving the starting position in the Pacific on its own. In early April, Sea Launch announced October 2007 as the date for the next rocket launch.
Bankruptcy and restart
On June 22, 2009, Sea Launch had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy under US bankruptcy law. The reason was over-indebtedness - assets estimated at $ 100 million to $ 500 million were offset by liabilities of up to $ 2 billion.
As of October 27, 2010, the insolvency proceedings were ended after RKK Energija acquired the subsidiary Energia Overseas Ltd. founded for this purpose . acquired an 85% majority in Sea Launch. The launches from the "Odyssey" platform were resumed in the course of 2011.
In 2016 Sea Launch was resold to the Russian S7 Group , parent company of S7 Airlines . In the following year, the company ordered 12 missiles from Juschmasch, but canceled the contract in 2019. Instead, S7 began talks with Roscosmos about launching Soyuz-5 rockets from a sea launch platform from 2024.
In 2020 the Odyssey and Sea Launch Commander were relocated from Long Beach to a Russian port near Vladivostok .
Subsidiary Land Launch
The subsidiary “Land Launch” has been bringing a three-stage Zenit-3SLB from Baikonur into the GTO from satellites since April 2008 . For this, the Zenit-3SL was slightly modified and started from the Zenit-2 launch system. Because of the less favorable location of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the rocket can only carry 3.6 t into the GTO. The advantage of the land launch, however, is that the start-up costs are significantly lower than for a start from sea. A two-stage Zenit-2SLB is also planned. It could carry up to 12 tons to the ISS .
Sequence of a start
A few weeks before a launch, the rocket is loaded into a hangar on the launch platform, after which both the ship and the launch platform drive to a point in the Pacific , which is approximately 154 degrees west longitude near Kiritimati , about 2200 km south of Hawaii lies. The platform is not anchored, but is kept in a constant position by its drive. Complex control technology based on satellite navigation tries to keep the platform in a defined position. This is made more difficult by ocean currents that are difficult to predict.
Shortly before a planned start, the floating bodies of the platform are flooded and the platform is thus lowered. Then the rocket is raised and the launch team changes to the Sea Launch Commander .
In addition to the rocket on the launch platform, the Sea Launch Commander can transport other rockets. So far, however, no use has been made of this, as the take-off rate is relatively low and so there is enough time for both ships to return to their home port.
Start list
| Serial No. | Date, time UTC | payload | Dimensions | orbit | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 28, 1999, 1:29 am | Dummy payload | 4.5 t | GTO | success |
| 2 | October 10, 1999, 3:28 am | DIRECTV 1-R | 3.5 t | GTO | success |
| 3 | March 12, 2000, 2:49 pm | ICO F-1 | 2.7 t | GTO | False start |
| 4th | July 28, 2000, 10:42 pm | PAS 9 | 3.7 t | GTO | success |
| 5 | October 21, 2000, 5:52 am | Thuraya -1 | 5.1 t | GTO | success |
| 6th | March 18, 2001, 10:33 pm | XM-2 skirt | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 7th | May 8, 2001, 10:10 pm | XM-1 roll | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 8th | June 15, 2002, 10:39 pm | Galaxy IIIC | 4.9 t | GTO | success |
| 9 | June 10, 2003, 13:56 | Thuraya -2 | 5.2 t | GTO | success |
| 10 | August 8, 2003, 3:31 am | EchoStar IX / Telstar 13 | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 11 | October 1, 2003, 4:03 am | Galaxy XIII / Horizons-1 | 4.1 t | GTO | success |
| 12 | January 11, 2004, 4:13 am | Telstar 14 / Estrela do Sul 1 | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 13 | May 4, 2004, 12:42 pm | DIRECTV-7S | 5.5 t | GTO | success |
| 14th | June 29, 2004, 3:58 am | Telstar 18 | 4.8 t | GTO | Partial success |
| 15th | March 1, 2005, 3:51 am | XM-3 Rhythm | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 16 | April 26, 2005, 7:31 am | Spaceway -1 | 6 t | GTO | success |
| 17th | June 23, 2005, 2:03 pm | Intelsat Americas 8 | 5.5 t | GTO | success |
| 18th | November 8, 2005, 2:07 pm | Inmarsat 4-F2 | 5.96 t | GTO | success |
| 19th | February 15, 2006, 11:35 pm | EchoStar X | 4.33 t | GTO | success |
| 20th | April 12, 2006, 11:30 pm | JCSAT-9 | 4.4 t | GTO | success |
| 21st | June 18, 2006, 7:50 am | Galaxy 16 | 4.7 t | GTO | success |
| 22nd | 22 August 2006, 3:27 am | Koreasat 5 | 4.55 t | GTO | success |
| 23 | October 30, 2006, 11:49 pm | XM-4 blues | 5.2 t | GTO | success |
| 24 | January 30, 2007, 11:22 pm | NSS-8 | 5.8 t | GTO | False start |
| 25th | January 15, 2008, 11:49 am | Thuraya 3 | 5.2 t | GTO | success |
| 26th | March 19, 2008, 10:48 pm | DirecTV-11 | 5.9 t | GTO | success |
| 27 | May 21, 2008, 9:43 am | Galaxy 18 | 4.6 t | GTO | success |
| 28 | July 16, 2008, 5:20 am | EchoStar 11 | 5.5 t | GTO | success |
| 29 | September 24, 2008, 7:28 pm | Galaxy 19 | 4.6 t | GTO | success |
| 30th | April 20, 2009, 8:16 am | SICRAL 1B | 3.0 t | GTO | success |
| 31 | September 24, 2011, 8:18 pm | Atlantic Bird 7 | 4.6 t | GTO | success |
| 32 | June 1, 2012, 5:23 am | Intelsat 19th | 5.6 t | GTO | success |
| 33 | August 19, 2012, 6:55 am | Intelsat 21 | 6.0 t | GTO | success |
| 34 | December 3, 2012, 8:44 pm | Eutelsat 70B | 5.25 t | GTO | success |
| 35 | February 1, 2013, 6:56 am | Intelsat 27 | 6.2 t | GTO | False start |
| 36 | May 26, 2014, 9:10 pm | Eutelsat 3B | 5.97 t | GTO | success |
Web links
- Former Sea Launch website ( memento of March 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
- Zenit and Sea-Launch starting place with starting list in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cause of the false start of the Zenit-3SL - failure of an engine . RIA novosti / Sputnik News, March 13, 2007 (German)
- ↑ Sea Launch Assesses Status and Plans for Next Steps ( Memento from March 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), press release from February 1, 2007 (English)
- ↑ NSS-8 ( Memento of February 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - heavily illustrated mission page at Sea Launch , February 3, 2007
- ↑ Progress on the Sea Launch Investigation and Recovery ( Memento of May 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), press release of April 3, 2007 (English)
- ↑ Sea Launch files for Chapter 11 . spacetoday.net, June 24, 2009 (English)
- ↑ Missile marketer Sea Launch is broke . ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Financial Times Deutschland , June 24, 2009
- ↑ Источник: "Морской старт" планируют перебазировать из США на Дальний Восток. In: RIA Novosti. April 16, 2019, Retrieved April 16, 2019 (Russian).
- ↑ Roscosmos, S7 in talks over relocating Sea Launch platform to Far East - Rogozin. Interfax, May 23, 2019, accessed May 24, 2019 .
- ↑ Roscosmos plans to resume missile launches from Sea launch . KXAN36, April 2020.
- ↑ Sea Launch “frozen” after ships moved to Russia . Spacenews, April 24, 2020.