Sea Launch Nears ‘Return to Flight’
Odyssey Launch Platform Almost Ready to Go Following Earlier Satellite Explosion
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 4/3/2007 12:55:00 PM
With repair work in progress, Sea Launch said Tuesday that its launch platform -- the site of the explosion of a Dutch satellite at takeoff earlier this year -- may be ready to return to service this fall.
Sea Launch -- which provides heavy-lift launch services to commercial satellite customers -- said repairs to its Odyssey Launch Platform are expected to be completed by September, with a “return to flight” in October.
The Long Beach, Calif.-based company also reported progress in the investigation into the Jan. 30 explosion of a $300 million New Skies-8 satellite when it was being launched from Sea Launch’s floating platform.
The national space agencies of Russia and Ukraine formed an interagency commission in early February to investigate the cause of the incident and determine the necessary corrective actions, Sea Launch said in a prepared statement.
The commission recently concluded its investigation and issued a summary statement to Sea Launch indicating that an anomaly within the first stage engine caused early termination of thrust, resulting in the loss of the mission, according to the company.
The Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board is meeting this week in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, with representatives of the interagency commission and Sea Launch partner companies, to evaluate the commission's findings regarding the root cause of the anomaly and recommended corrective actions.
The FROB is comprised of Sea Launch technical leadership and U.S. aerospace-industry experts, as well as customer representatives. Upon completion of the meetings, the FROB chairman will determine whether to close the FROB and begin implementation of the recommended corrective actions or to keep the FROB open for further investigation and evaluation.
Concurrently, the Sea Launch team completed its damage assessment phase of the launch platform, including repair and recertification requirements and scheduling of repair activities. The team is now engaged in a recovery process to restore all damaged systems.
The most significant of these efforts will be the construction and installation of a new gas deflector located beneath the launch pad; replacement of heat-affected cable and wiring; replacement of the launch support umbilical interface to the launch vehicle; and painting of the external surfaces.
The one-of-a-kind gas deflector -- a 250-metric-ton steel structure that directs the engine exhaust away from the platform and controls the acoustic environment -- is being built in St. Petersburg, Russia, by the original subcontractor. The Design Bureau of Transport Machinery -- Sea Launch's Russian contractor for much of the launch-support equipment -- is managing this effort.
Upon completion of the fabrication of the deflector, DBTM will ship the structure to Sea Launch home port, Long Beach, for installation on the launch platform. Additional heavy industrial repair work and painting will be performed at a shipyard on the West Coast of North America.
Based on current progress, Sea Launch anticipates that the FROB activity will be completed by June, followed by implementation of the necessary corrective actions leading to return to flight. The launch-platform repair and recertification operations are expected to be completed in September.
Sea Launch said that its partners -- Boeing, RSC Energia, SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash and Aker ASA -- remain fully committed to working together to resolve the anomaly and recover from its consequences for a “return to flight” in October.
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