Sea Launch

At 2:50 a.m. CST on June 18, 2006, a Russian-made carrier rocket with a U.S. communications satellite was successfully launched from Sea Launch's floating platform in the Pacific. Sea Launch was created in 1995 as a consortium comprising Boeing as well as leading spacecraft design and fabrication companies from Norway, Russia and Ukraine. Sea Launch is the only company to currently conduct launches from a sea platform in the Pacific's equatorial waters, a location that yields numerous benefits such as the conservation of rocket and satellite fuel (increasing the useful lives of both the rocket and satellite), a more cost-effective infrastructure and the ability to launch heavier payloads than otherwise possible.

Sea Launch rockets are assembled and tested in Long Beach, California. The launch operation includes two vessels: the platform (from which the rockets actually launch) and a command ship (from which the launch is safely controlled). When preparations in Long Beach are complete, the two vessels travel 3000 miles to the equatorial launch site in the Pacific near Christmas Island (a trip that takes 11 days for the slower platform vessel).

To date, the launches have all used the custom built three-stage Zenit 3SL rocket which has a payload capacity of up to six tons (12,000 lbs). Since 1999, Sea Launch has completed over 20 launches for companies such as EchoStar, DirecTV, XM Radio, and PanAmSat. The most recent launch put a geostationary satellite into orbit that will provide communication and broadcast services to the continental U.S. as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada.

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