Sea Launch To Come Ashore

Ukrainian carrier rockets have advanced to new levels of international cooperation in the conquest of space. According to the Pivdenne Design Bureau Press Center, an agreement on the principles of cooperation on a new international space project, Land Launch, has been signed in Moscow by Sea Launch Consortium President James G. Maser and Ihor Alekseyev, General Director of International Space Services, a Russo-Ukrainian company established two years ago.

Ukraine has been for five years successfully cooperating on the international Sea Launch project, supplying its Zenith-3SL carrier rockets that put commercial satellites into orbit. Over this period, there have been eleven successful sea launches using the Ukrainian carrier rockets from a floating platform Odysseus in the Pacific Ocean. However, this project has both its strengths and weaknesses. An indisputable advantage is the fact that launches from the equator make it possible to put into high geostationary orbits over five tons in useful cargo. A major drawback is, however, the high costs and time it takes to deliver carrier rockets from Dnipropetrovsk to the Port of Long Beach in California and from there to a launch facility off Christmas Island.

To expand the possibilities of the international Sea Launch consortium, the Ukrainian side, Pivdenne Design Bureau and Pivdenmash Plant, has proposed to its partners overseas to complement launches from the floating platform with land-based launches from the Kazakh Baikonur Space Center, which has preserved a launch facility for two-stage Zenith-2 carriers. After minor remodeling, Baikonur could be used to launch the three-stage Zeniths as well, which are used in the Sea Launch. According to the Dnipropetrovsk designers, the advantages of the new project designed to complement sea launches with land-based launches are indisputable. Above all this would cut transport costs. And although carriers launched from Baikonur, which is a long way from the equator, can deliver much lighter spacecraft to geostationary orbits, experts still believe that upgraded Zenith-3SL B and Zenith-2SL B (B stands for Baikonur) carriers can occupy a useful market niche. Moreover, advanced microchip technologies make it possible to reduce the satellite’s weight without affecting its technical performance. The characteristics of Zenith-2SL B carriers make it possible for them to deliver up to fourteen tons of useful cargo to low orbits, and they can also serve as space transports for the International Space Station.

Already there are potential customers for the first launches using Zenith-3SL B carrier rockets. The Zenith M launch facility at the Baikonur Space Center will be ready for use in the last quarter of 2005.