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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/98 SEA LAUNCH: LIFT-OFF FROM THE PACIFIC by Christopher Hess The first launch rocket of the launch service Sea Launch is supposed to lift off into orbit from a modified oil platform in the pacific in the second half of this year. With a payload capacity of up to five tons, the new system emerges as a serious competitor to the European Ariane 5. Lift-off locations for such rockets are relatively rare. The ideal position would be located at the equator since earth's gravitational forces can be used there at their best. A further advantage is that less fuel is needed for corrections of the inclination. Therefore such a position would create good conditions to launch heavy payloads in the five ton class into space, like for example large communication satelites. The need for launch systems that are capable of getting such payloads into a geostationary transfer orbit appeared in the early nineties. This led to the development of the Ariane 5 in Europe, which is prepared for its third flight right now. The Sea Launch Corporation, founded in 1995, saw the demand for a new launch system as well. The goal was to have the new system on the market after a development phase of less than three years. Sea Launch is a cooperation of Boeing Commercial Space (40 percent), the Russian RSC-Energiia (25 percent), Kvaerner Maritime a.s from Norway (20 percent) and KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of the Ukraine. The company's headquaters are located on the Cayman Islands. Regarding the lack of a suitable launch location on the mainland, the launch service decided to go a totally new way from the beginning. A modified oil rig, favorably positioned at the equator, should serve as a launch platform while a specially equipped ship would act as an assembly and control center. The homebase was supposed to be located near potential customers, which would naturally be satellite manufacturers. To be in the vicinity of potential customer from the US the company founded the US Sea Launch Co. in Long Beach, California. Work on the Sea Launch base in the harbour of Long Beach began in August 1996 within close range of the large American satellite manufacturers like Hughes Space & Communication. The two essential sea vehicles, the assembly and control ship and the platform, are supposed to arrive at Long Beach in the middle of 1998. The ship is specially designed as a swimming assembly hall and also acts as control center during the launches. It was built by the Govan shipyards in Glasgow, Scotland, and has already acomplished several test cruises. At this time it is harboured in St Petersburgh, Russia, where all the necessary launch and control equipment is fitted. This swimming control center has a lenght of 201 meters, a width of 32 meters and a draft displacement of more than 32000 tons. It offers room for up top 240 crew members. The range is said to be 18000 nautical miles (33336 km). The launch platform Odyssey is a former oil rig out of the North Sea which was modified at the Rosenberg shipyard in Stavanger, Norway. Odyssey is 133 meters long, 67 meters wide and has a draft displacement of 50600 tons fully loaded. Like the ship the platform has already finished its trials phase and is in the process of being fitted with the lanch equipment in Russia. Odyssey can accomodate up to 68 crew members and offers a large environmentally controlled hangar to store the Sea Launch rocket during the cruise from the home port to the launch destination. It also incorporates a mobile transport and lifting mechanism to move the rocket out of the hangar and bring it into launch position. The components of the first six rockets are already built at the various locations of the company. The launch system is based on the Zenit rocket which has been successfully launched 24 times to date. The first and second stages of the rocket are manufactured in Jutschnoje/Jutschmasch. The RD-171 engine burns liquid oxygene and kerosene, creating a take-off thrust of 1,6 million lbs. The third stage is based on the available technology of the Block DM that has been successfully in use as fourth stage of the Proton rocket in a total of 159 launches. The Sea Launch version Block DM-SL built in Russia has an improved computer and flight control system and is based on other maritime uses to adjust the rocket for a launch from the sea. Boeing is responsible for the payload fairing consisting of CFRP as well as the interstage structure. The payload bay has an inner diameter of 3,9 meters. The first unfuelled rocket components are delivered by the assembly ship upon its cruise from Russia to Long Beach. Future transports will be handled as ordinary cargos on the land and sea way. The parts are then stored in a depot at Long Beach until they are brought to the assembly ship if needed, which like the platform is docked at the home port between the launch missions. The three stages are joined in the production facility below deck and await the fitting of the payload stage. The customer's payload will be prepared for the flight in a special hall on the harbour grounds where it is integrated into the payload fairing. After that it is brought on board of the assembly ship and joined with the still horizontally stored rocket. Then a lifting device will transfer the completed rocket to the platform where it is placed in the hangar until lift-off. Both the platform and the ship begin their journey to the launch site in the pacific ocean. Sea Launch expects that the majority of payloads are destined for a geostationary transfer orbit. Therefore the company has chosen a launch location at 154 degrees West at the equator, around 1400 nautical miles (2590 km) south-east from Hawaii. Once arrived at the site the rocket is prepared for the launch and successibly rolled out of the hangar and lifted to a vertical position. Just before lift-off the crew leaves the Odyssey out of safety reasons and moves over to the control ship and activates the automatic lift-off sequence, including the fuelling, out of a safe distance of five kilometers. After lift-off, the mission control on board of the ship is linked either directly or via satellite to the rocket, the payload, the customer and a secondary control center in Russia. Sea Launch has logged 18 launch contracts so far, 13 of which are booked by Hughes Space & Communication in Los Angeles. The other five are for Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California. The first mission with a Hughes HS 702 payload is envisaged for the second half of 1998. From page 36 of FLUG REVUE 7/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated June 9, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany