Sea Launch Rocket Suffers Catastrophic Failure

A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle carrying the NSS-8 satellite for SES New Skies suffered a catastrophic failure Jan. 30, exploding at liftoff.

An Internet broadcast of the launch by Sea Launch was cut off as a fireball enveloped the platform only seconds after anticipated liftoff. A video clip tagged “Rocket Blows Up” has been posted on the Web site YouTube.com, and shows that the vehicle never cleared Sea Launch’s floating platform.

Sea Launch has not yet commented on the status of the platform, saying only that the vehicle “experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. All personnel at the launch site are safe and accounted for.”
Sea Launch spokeswoman Paula Koran said the company is planning to issue a statement later today, “after we complete our assessment,” and the company also will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of the explosion.

Long Beach, Calif.-based Sea Launch is a partnership of Boeing Co., Russia’s RSC-Energia, Aker ASA of Norway and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine. Boeing Commercial Space Co. provides the payload fairing, analytical and physical spacecraft integration and mission operations. RSC Energia, manufactures the Block DM-SL upper stage of the rocket, while SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash provides first two Zenit-3SL stages. Aker ASA, built the Odyssey launch platform and command ship, Sea Launch Commander.

In early January, Rob Peckham, president and general manager of Sea Launch, had said the company was “hitting our stride” with six launches scheduled for 2007.

“It’s a shock,” said Marco Caceres, a space analyst for Teal Group. “There’s been no indication of any problems for the last few years. You have a good thing going, and then you’re completely shocked.” Pending further assessment, Caceres said “clearly it’s going to set them back at least six months. It will depend on what the investigation concludes.”

Among the disadvantages now faced by Sea Launch is the relative difficulty required to repair a platform at sea rather than one constructed on land. “Launch pads are designed to take some pretty severe punishment,” he said. “On a converted oil platform, it’s more difficult.”

While Sea Launch “was clearly on a roll,” with six launches planned for 2007, “they definitely won’t do five or six this year,” and likely only half of those if all goes well after the investigation.

Other missions are scheduled for 2007 were for Thuraya, Intelsat, Hughes Network Systems, DirecTV and EchoStar, and Sea Launch could lose some of those missions to competitors, Caceres said.

“The sales reps from all the major companies are on the phone immediately,” Caceres said. “They know what the manifest is for the competition and what their customers’ needs are.”

Other options open to customers seeking to launch in the short term include rescheduling a lunch with Arianespace or International Launch services, Caceres said. “There’s really no one else who’s going to launch those kind of satellites,” he said.

Judy Blake, a spokeswoman for Hughes Network Systems, said it was too early to know how the failure might affect the company’s Spaceway-3 satellite. “They’re just starting the evaluation,” she said. “We’re very disappointed.”

The NSS-8 satellite was built by Boeing and owned by Netherlands-based SES New Skies, a subsidiary of European satellite giant SES Global. The spacecraft, equipped with nearly 100 transponders to provide high-speed Internet, broadcasting and other services, was intended to replace NSS-703.

The loss of NSS-8 is not expected to have an impact on existing customers or revenues, SES New Skies said. NSS-703 will remain at 57° East and will serve customers until at least 2009, the company said. NSS-9, under construction at Orbital Sciences Corp., is scheduled for launch in 2009 to replace NSS-5, which then will replace NSS-703.