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ROS
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There are many benefits of launch-
ing a rocket from
the equator, but to
get there a team
of engineers from
across the globe
had to come
together to build
the first – and
only – floating
launch pad.
Made up of three elements,
including a Zenit-3SL rocket, a
marine segment, and home port,
the Sea Launch System has made
the trip to the equator 35 times
since its creation in 1995.
The Sea Launch came together as
a joint venture between multiple
countries after a push from the U.S.
State Department hoping to prevent
a brain drain from Russia following the fall of the
Soviet Union.
“The benefit the Sea Launch System and the Zenit-
3SL rocket brings is the combination of western
style customer interfaces both in payload processing
and program interfaces and the heritage of Russian
and Ukrainian launch vehicle design,” says John
Riedman, systems engineer at Energia Logistics.
“This combination provides the transparent interactions that our customers expect.”
By Land & By Sea
Providing support to the marine segment at sea, the
Sea Launch System’s home port sprawls across 17
acres in Long Beach, California. The facility is staffed
24 hours a day, seven days a week, and serves as
the base of operations for both the Sea Launch
Commander and the Launch Platform Odyssey.
Also home to the Payload Processing Facility (PPF),
the port receives customers’ spacecraft that is prepared for launch on the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle,
which is capable of launching up to 6,160 kg.
“The performance benefits of the Zenit-3SL rocket
is that each spacecraft is launched into an optimized
orbit into its desired inclination so that it does not
need to execute a plane change maneuver when
transferring to its final orbital location,” explains
Riedman. “Therefore they have more fuel on-board
to dedicate to maintaining orbital position and
When all systems are ready to head to sea, the
rocket is moved to the Launch Platform Odyssey,
a former North Sea oil drilling platform floating
on two large pontoons, each similar in length to
a Trident submarine. The platform is one of the
world’s largest self-propelled, semi-submersible
vessels, and includes an environmentally controlled
hangar where the rocket is stored horizontally until
it is righted and rolled out to the launch deck.
“As the engine thrust reaches 100 percent we
release the rocket from the posts and they rise up
and close back into the launch pad before the main
engine’s 1.6 million pounds of thrust lifts the vehicle
off of the launch platform. This automated process
By Melissa Fassbender,
Associate Editor
