Russia has found a buyer for Sea Launch, the innovative but troubled launch consortium which combines an ocean going platform with Zenit boosters built in the Ukraine to loft satellites to GTO from the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Following the suspension of operations in 2014, Russia had been looking to sell Sea Launch in order to […]
For nearly 15 years. the large ComSat launch market has been dominated by three companies; Arianespace, which operates the market leading Ariane V, International Launch Services of Reston, Va., which markets the Russian built Proton heavy lift rocket, and Sea Launch, which operates the Ukraine/Russian Zenit-3SL. Although the Proton has certainly had its share of […]
A busy, and unusually significant September launch schedule got underway Saturday at 4:05 p.m. EDT with the liftoff of a Land Launch Zenit-3SLB booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Carrying the 9,500 lb. AMOS-4 communications satellite, Israel’s largest Comsat so far, to a GTO, the successful launch marked a return to flight for […]
Shortly before a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy booster lifted off from Vandenberg AFB yesterday, spacepolicyonline relayed a report from the Russian newspaper Izvestia suggesting that Vladimir Putin’s government is considering terminating the agreement which allows the United States to import the RD-180 main engine which powers the ULA Atlas V booster. Although critics […]
After a difficult two-year span which had seen a surprising number of failures in the Russian launch industry, things appeared to be getting back on track in 2013. Until today. Within a few seconds of liftoff at 8:38 a.m. local time, (10:38 p.m. EDT Monday July 1) a Russian Proton-M booster carrying 3 Glonass (GPS) satellites began oscillating, exhibiting a loss of […]
Sea Launch released the results of its Failure Review Oversight Board last week regarding the January 31st loss of Intelsat 27. As earlier reports indicated, the failure was assigned to the BIM hydraulic pump built in Ukraine, which provides steering pressurization for the Russian built main engine. Since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2010, Sea Launch […]
Trouble plagued Sea Launch AG has secured it first order following a February 1st launch failure which saw the complete loss of the Zenit 3-SL booster and Intelsat-27 satellite only seconds after liftoff. The failure, which has been blamed on a Ukrainian built pump which supplied on-board power, occured 4.5 seconds after liftoff and resulted in the automatic shut-down of […]
Kicking off a full 2013 launch campaign, an Ariane V ECA heavy lift booster carrying two satellites lifted off from the CSG space center in French Guiana today, and in the process established a record performance of placing 10,317 kg into GTO. The larger of the two satellites, the 6,265 kg Amazonas 3, was built by Space Systems/Loral Satellite for Spanish operator Hispasat. […]
Sea Launch A G suffered a major, and possibly crippling setback in efforts to regain a meaningful market position in the early hours of Friday morning (EST) when its Zenit 3-SL launch vehicle veered off its course immediately following liftoff. 50 seconds later, the main engine shut down, terminating thrust and sending the rocket and its Intelsat -27 payload […]
Switzerland based Sea Launch AG successfully conducted its third mission of the year on Monday, lofting the Eutalsat-70B communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit from its floating Ocean Odyssey platform in the Pacific. The launch of the Zenit-3SL rocket, the 34th in the history of the program took place from 154 degrees West longitude along the equator, and followed previous launches in June and August of […]
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