Tim Furniss/LONDON Paul Duffy/MOSCOW
A precise satellite launch service to all orbital inclinations from a single location is something that, until now, no launch site operator could claim. Payloads cannot be launched into polar orbits safely from Cape Canaveral in Florida, for example, without flying over the USA. Meanwhile, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, in French Guiana, is in a good position for launches to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) because it is almost on the equator, making the most of the speed of the Earth's rotation.
That is why the prospect appeals of taking the launch site on to the equator to extract the most benefit from the Earth's rotational speed and providing the most fuel-efficient launch. This is being offered by the $2 billion Sea Launch venture, led by Boeing with partners from Norway, Russia and Ukraine.
Boeing holds a 40% stake in the company, which plans to inaugurate services later this year with the launch to GTO, from the mid-Pacific, of the Galaxy XI communications satellite. The shareholders have spent $500 million on the venture so far.
Sea Launch will not be the first to offer a sea-based launch: small research satellites have been sent into orbit from the Italian San Marco platform off Kenya. Sea Launch will be the first commercial venture to launch from the ocean and the first to send large communications satellites, weighing up to 5,000kg, into GTO.
ZENIT HERITAGE
The 61m (200ft)-high Sea Launch booster is based on Ukraine's Zenit 2 two-stage satellite launcher, with the addition of a Russian Proton KDM third stage. Ukraine's NPO Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, which manufacture the Zenit 2, and Russia's NPO Energia, which produces the DM stage, are partners in Sea Launch, with 15% and 25% stakes, respectively.
The World Bank will provide $200 million of political and other risk guarantees to creditors of the Russian and Ukrainian companies. The venture is being supported by credits from a consortium of 14 international banks. It is estimated that the project will bring $700 million in business to Russian and Ukrainian companies.
The Zenit will be making its first flight as a GTO booster. "This is a historic project that we can compare with the launch of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin in 1961," says Yuri Semenov, general director of Energia.
The Zenit 2 was first flown in 1985 as the Soviet Union's medium-lift launch vehicle. Its launch record, from Baikonur, is 21 successes, eight failures, including two catastrophic explosions, and one failure to reach the correct orbit.
The launcher is based on the strap-on boosters of the Soviet Union's Energia heavylift vehicle, which was flown just twice in 1987-8, before being scrapped because of budget cuts after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"We have new pipelines, new controls with updated avionics and considerable redundancy. Boeing's integration work was a considerable help," says Yuri Alekseev, general director of Yuzhmash. Stanislav Konukhov, general director of Yuzhnoye, adds: "Despite major economic and technical problems, we have done it. We have a state of the art vehicle and the first rocket is ready to go."
Sea Launch has 18 launch contacts, 13 from Hughes and five from Space Systems/Loral. "A normal launch price would be in the $70 million to $100 million range," says Sea Launch president Allen Ashby.
The key elements of the Sea Launch system are the launch pad, called Odyssey, and the rocket assembly and mission control ship, Sea Commander. The Odyssey is a self-propelled, semi-submersible launch platform, a former oil rig modified by Norway's Kvaerner, which has a 20% stake in the company. Both vessels will be at Sea Launch's home base of Seal Beach, California, by August in preparation for the first launch, of the Galaxy XI, from the mid-Pacific.
PAYBACK FROM LAUNCHES
"Six launches a year will give us payback," says Ashby. "We have the capacity to take two launchers out at a time. For now, we will return to base after each launch, but may revise this in the future. We will always have enough fuel with us to perform an extra launch - to make sure we have sufficient for any situation."
The location selected, 1,600km (1,000 miles) south of Hawaii, should offer weather conditions which provide 95% launch acceptability, says Ashby. Maximum allowable wave height will be 3m. The platform can be lowered to improve its stability, Sea Launch says.
The potential ecological impact of the sea-based launches has caused controversy. Ashby stresses: "California is tough on ecology, and has issued us with all the required ecological and safety permits." The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme in Samoa, however, says that launching from the platform close to Christmas Island will cause ecological damage. It says that each launch will result in 36t of carbon monoxide and 181t of carbon dioxide being emitted into the lower troposphere, and that the first two rocket stages, together weighing 38t, will fall into the Pacific with 4.5t of residual kerosene that will form a slick. The organisation's findings have been sent to its 22 member countries for review and action.
Source: Flight International
