Sea Launch mission lands in Sea

[neufer]

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Sea Launch mission fails, rocket and satellite destroyed

<<A 20-story rocket carrying an Intelsat communications satellite failed 40 seconds after liftoff, destroying both the rocket and the satellite, and crashed into the ocean. The rocket launched from a floating launchpad out in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. No one was injured in the incident, but Sea Launch is looking into the situation to see what caused the failure.

The failed launch, while always unfortunate, could be a huge setback for Sea Launch, which got out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2010 and began launching rockets again starting in September 2011. However, this isn’t the first launch failure that the company has had. In 2007, they also experienced a disastrous launch, which ended up being recorded and became viral that year.

The Intelsat satellite, which was made by Boeing, was going to be used to transmit signals in the US and Europe, and was built to withstand 15 years of service. It’s not said how much it cost to build the satellite, nor how much the entire launch cost, but it was definitely money down the drain, and Sea Launch will most likely spend even more money putting together a team to investigate the failed launch.

Sea Launch isn’t that well known in the space industry, but they’ve been launching satellites and other cargo into space since 1999, with some of their biggest clients being Intelsat and DirecTV. However, as the demand for satellites fell during the turn of the millenium, Sea Launch began seeing less and less business. By 2002, the company had only sent up one satellite. After emerging from bankruptcy, the company is back, but who knows what this most recent failed launch will mean for the company as it continues to struggle.>>

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<<Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. It has assembled and launched thirty-one rockets, with three failures and one partial failure. Sea Launch was established in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, managed by Boeing with participation from the other shareholders. The launcher and its payload are assembled on a purpose-built ship Sea Launch Commander in Long Beach, California, USA. It is then positioned on top of the self-propelled platform Ocean Odyssey and moved to the equatorial Pacific Ocean for launch, with the Sea Launch Commander serving as command center.

Advantages of equatorial launch site:

• The rotational speed of the Earth is greatest at the equator, providing a minor extra launch "boost".
  
  The need for a "plane change" to the zero degree inclination of geostationary orbit is eliminated, providing a major extra launch "boost". This allows 17.5%-25% more mass to be launched to geostationary orbit than the same rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, which is at 28.5 degrees north latitude.
  
  Any orbital inclination could be reached, thus (for example) combining in one launch site the attainable inclinations of both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.

Advantages of ocean-based over a conventional land-based launch platform:

• An ocean launch reduces risks related to launching over populated areas, providing better safety to third parties.
  
  Absence of range conflicts with other launch systems and a near total absence of ship or overhead air traffic that would constrain launch.>>

[saturno2]

This failed launch is very bad business for Sea Launch.
But the explanation of this type of release is very interesting

[Beyond]

Yes... there's lots of room for failure