Sea Launch successfully completed its return to flight/ systems readiness review in late June, paving the way for the launcher's return to operations later this month. The review followed Sea Launch's failure in March to place the first ICO satellite into orbit.
Sea Launch has announced that PanAmSat's PAS 9 satellite will fly on the next Zenit 3SL booster set for launch from its mid-Pacific, equatorial mobile launch platform late this month. PAS 9 is a Hughes HS-601HP spacecraft.
The return to operations follows an extensive review of the ICO launch failure. The Sea Launch failure review oversight board issued its report in late May, attributing the failure to a ground software logic error. The return to flight/systems readiness review board signed a certificate of agreement in late June stating that they are satisfied that all corrective actions are being implemented "satisfactorily".
Jim Maser, chairman of the review board and Sea Launch chief engineer says: "Based on the investigation and subsequent report, we are completely confident the root cause was clearly identified. We also identified corrective actions that address not only the ground software logic error, but also all associated process weaknesses that could have allowed such an error to go undetected."
Sea Launch has briefed insurance companies and customers on the review. The company will conduct an executive review, in addition to the standard mission readiness review, ahead of the next launch.
Source: Flight International
