Sea Launch… Getting Set For Space Again (Launch)

[SatNews] International consortium Sea Launch plans to resume Zenit-3SL carrier rocket launches from its floating platform in the Pacific Ocean in 2011, the head of the Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energia said on Monday.

“All political conditions for resuming launches on the Sea Launch program have been met. All commissions in the United States have been passed. A license for 70 launches has been received,” Vitaly Lopota said. There are enough contracts for satellite launches. The first launch is due at the end of next year,” he said. Sea Launch was created in 1995. It incorporated Energia with a 25 percent stake, a Boeing subsidiary with 40 percent, Norwegian company Aker ASA with a 20 percent stake and Ukraine’s SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash with 15 percent.

Sea Launch announced its bankruptcy in June 2009. In July 2010, Energia subsidiary Energia Overseas Limited (EOL) received 95 percent in Sea Launch by a bankruptcy court ruling. A total of 30 rocket launches have been made from the Pacific platform since 1999, with 27 of them successful.