Satellite-based communications is all the buzz in the telecom industry today, with hopeful mobile satellite services providers and terrestrial-based telcos alike shooting satellites into orbit with unprecedented regularity.
Yet the rush of commercial satellite launches has placed the current presidential administration in hot water with critics, the beef being that many of these satellites were carried by Chinese rockets and that the U.S. corporations paying for said launches may have given the communist megalith a few pointers on rocket accuracy.
These companies cite the exorbitant cost of U.S. launches as the main factor behind eschewing American taxpayer-funded launch pads in favor of foreign ports. Politics aside, there is a need for a cheaper launch solution.
One venture is answering that need. A consortium called Sea Launch Co.-a $500 million international project funded by companies in Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States-aims to launch a rocket from a modified oil rig in the middle of the Pacific. The purpose is to launch rockets from the Equator, rather than at higher latitudes.
Apparently, launching from the Equator allows a rocket to take better advantage of the earth’s rotational pull, like the children’s game crack-the-whip, and also travel a shorter distance to its orbital location. This means less fuel; less fuel means less weight; less weight in fuel means more weight in payload; all of which means less money needed to launch.
With some $50 billion in satellite manufacturing and launch activity expected through the turn-of-the-century, and with the cost of U.S. launches not expected to fall anytime soon, the partners in Sea Launch feel there is a market to be met.
The partnership
Sea Launch was formed in April 1995 in the Cayman Islands by Boeing Commercial Space Co., 40 percent; RSC-Energia of Moscow, 25 percent; Kvaerner Maritime a.s of Oslo, 20 percent; and KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, 15 percent. The company has offices in Oslo, Norway; Seattle, Wash.; and the U.S. Home Port facility in Long Beach, Calif.
Each partner plays a specific role in the launch scheme.
Boeing provides the payload enclosure and interfacing for the rocket, and built the Home Port facility. It also provides spacecraft integration and overall mission operations.
KB Yuzhnoye/Po Yuzhmash of the Ukraine is making the two-stage Zenit rocket that carries the payload into space and provides the operations support to that vehicle.
RSC-Energia of Russia designed and manufactured the Block DM-SL third-stage rocket, which navigates the payload once in orbit, and is responsible for its integration with the Zenit, as well as other launch operations and range services.
Finally, Kvaerner Maritime a.s. of Norway built the Assembly & Command Ship and the Launch Platform. It will handle all marine operations involved.
The international makeup of this venture speaks volumes to the evolution of global relations. Once fierce competitors in the space race, companies from Russia and the United States today share technology. Perhaps even more significant is that a Zenit rocket, once the preferred vehicle for the many nukes the former Soviet Union military had aimed at U.S. soil, will now be used to deliver American communications satellites to orbit.
Home port
Near several major domestic satellite manufacturers, Home Port is an old navy base transformed to a payload processing facility, where the satellite payload is fueled, pressurized and the ordnance prepared. Sea Launch expects most payloads to be geostationary telecom satellites. The customers’ own technicians complete the final payload checkout before integration with the rocket.
The rocket
There are two parts to the rocket, or launch vehicle. The two-stage Zenit rocket made by Ukraine’s KB Yuzhnoye/Po Yuzhmash is much less expensive than U.S.-made rockets and is said to have better engines. It is fueled by low-cost liquid oxygen and kerosene.
The Block DM-SL Upper Stage rocket is based on the fourth stage of the Proton launch vehicle. This is the vehicle that guides the payload through space. Boeing provides the payload fairing and interstage structure.
The ship
Two seagoing vessels make up the Sea Launch system-the Assembly & Command Ship and the Launch Platform.
The 660-feet long, 106-feet wide ACS provides lodging and other facilities for the 240 launch team members and customers, and serves as mission control during the launch. Before the launch, at port, the ship will serve as a floating rocket assembly plant. Before each launch, the Zenit rockets and Energia rocket, payload assembly and payload will be integrated below decks on the ship.
The ACS was modified at the Govan Shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland, then sent to Russia, where special equipment was installed for handling rocket components and rocket command and control. The ACS is now en route to the Long Beach Home Port.
The Launch Platform, also known as the Odyssey, is a 436-feet long, 220-feet wide self-propelled, semi-submersible modified oil-drilling platform with a surface draft displacement of 30,000 tons and a submerged draft displacement of 50,600 tons.
It houses the transporter erector, fueling systems and automated control systems, as well as an environmentally controlled hangar to store the integrated rocket during transport.
It also provides accommodations for 68 crew members and spacecraft personnel. Prior to fueling and launch, the rocket assembled on the ACS will be transferred to the Odyssey and stored in the environmentally controlled hangar.
The launch
Once all the integration measures have taken place, and the completed rocket stored in its hangar, the ACS and Odyssey are boarded by the maritime staff, the launch support staff and the customer technical staff and taken to sea. When at the predetermined launch site-about 1,400 miles southeast of Hawaii near the Equator at 154 W.-the Odyssey submerges most its bulk to stabilize, with propellers to assist.
The rocket then is brought out of the hanger and prepared for launch. The two ships are connected via a gangway, allowing the crew to travel between ships.
The vehicle and payload crews prepare for launch and the rocket is brought out of the hangar into launch position. After a final check, the crew evacuates the launch pad via the gangway and the ships separate. The ACS travels to a safe distance three miles away while mission control fuels the rocket by remote.
Mission control then launches the rocket, with a backup mission control in Russia.
Customers
Hughes Space & Communications International Inc. already has contracted for 13 launches, while Space Systems/Loral has secured another five. The first mission, expected in October, will launch Hughes’ Model HS 702 communications satellite to a geostationary orbit as part of its Galaxy satellite network.
