A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite exploded shortly after liftoff from an oceangoing platform in the Pacific January 31. The Odyssey Launch Platform suffered only minor damage.
Sea Launch spokesperson Paula Korn said that the "mission recovery" program was fully underway and the Sea Launch team was proceeding on schedule with repairs and re-certification of the Odyssey platform and associated launch support equipment.
"We are hoping to conduct the first launch of a Zenit-3SL [after the January accident] with a Thuraya-3 telecommunications satellite on board in October of this year," she said.
The Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) concluded July 11 its review of the findings of an interagency CIS Joint Commission, which has been investigating the cause of the unsuccessful launch of January 30, 2007.
The commission concluded March 12 that the failure originated in the liquid oxygen turbo-pump section of the RD-171M main engine, manufactured by Russia's power machine-building company Energomash.
"All systems have been cleared for operations, pending completion and tests of all repairs on the Launch Platform," the FROB said in a statement posted on the Sea Launch Web site.
Established in 1995, the Sea Launch consortium is owned by Boeing, Kvaerner ASA of Oslo, Norway, Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, and RSC-Energia of Moscow.
The company launches its vehicles from the equator, which allows rockets to carry heavier payloads than they could from other locations due to the physics of the Earth's rotation.
