Sea Launch set for next month

September 2, 1999
Web posted at: 12:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT)

Sea Launch test in March

(CNN) -- An international consortium led by Boeing plans to make history in early to mid-October with the first commercial space launch of a rocket with a functional payload from a floating platform.

Contrary to a Reuters report that the launch was set for September 28, Sea Launch says it will take more time to prepare for the event than a liftoff this month would allow.

"We take it one day at a time. But if it means we lose a little time, we'd rather have a delayed success than an on-time failure," Sea Launch spokesman Terrance Scott said Wednesday.

No specific launch date has been set, he said.

In coming weeks, mission operators will continue to prepare the Zenit-3SL booster rocket and its satellite payload and to test the launch systems.

The Ukrainian booster rocket is set to blast into space from a platform in the Pacific Ocean, carrying a communications satellite owned by Hughes Electronics, part of General Motors.

Ukraine and Russia have been working with Boeing to develop the Sea Launch program, although there have been concerns over the reliability of the Zenit rockets.

The consortium made a successful test flight in March, launching a 200-foot rocket carrying a five-ton dummy payload.

Customers demanded a dummy load be used in the March test after a Zenit rocket crashed in September 1998, destroying 12 Globalstar communications satellites worth $190 million.

The remote launch site avoids risks associated with populated areas and takes advantage of the Earth's high rotational speed at the equator, which allows for heavier payloads of up to five tons.

"We hope the launch will be successful. It should mark the start of a new era in international space cooperation," said Eduard Kuznetsov, deputy head of Ukraine's National Space Agency.

The project has been developed over four years at a cost of about $500 million. Boeing owns 40 percent and partners include RSC Energia of Russia and KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine.

Reuters contributed to this report.