Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1998)

INVESTMENT IN DESIGN ture. The Seattle-based organiza- tion also has responsibility for establishing the homeport facili- ties in Long Beach, where close proximity to major U.S. satellite manufacturers facilitates trans- portation and encapsulation opera- tions for customers.

RSC-Energia, responsible for

Russia's space program, has a 25 percent holding in Sea Launch.

The Moscow-domiciled enterprise supplies the Block DM component of the system, the final stage of the rocket which positions the satellite in its final orbit, and is also respon- sible for mission launch support.

The Ukrainian co-venturer KB

Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash, with a 15 percent stake, is the source of the

Zenit rocket forming the first two stages of the launch vehicle.

The partnership has a substan- tial forward workload, through commitments from U.S. companies to 18 launches, plus a number of options. The opening dispatch from the Pacific into geostationary transfer orbit will be of a Hughes

HS702 communications satellite.

Designated Galaxy XI, the satellite will become part of the PanAmSat constellation, serving customers throughout the western hemi- sphere. Galaxy XI is the first of 13 launches booked by Hughes Space & Communications of Los Angeles, while five have been contracted by another Californian firm, Space

Systems/Loral of Palo Alto.

The precise cost of the Sea

Launch program has not been dis- closed, the joint venture company conceding only that it is in excess of $500 million.

In addition to the funding inputs from the partners, debt financing for the scheme has been arranged by Chase bank, with the participa- tion of the World Bank. Sea

Launch Co. has been registered in the Cayman Islands as a limited duration corporation, with offices in Oslo and Seattle, plus the Long

Beach marine base.

Sea Launch Commander was expected to sail from St.

Petersburg on June 10 for Long

Beach, its 105-ft. (32-m) beam, one of the design parameters, permit- ting access through the Panama

Canal.

Due to put out of Vyborg and into the Gulf of Finland on June 15, the platform will make the entire tran- sit to California under its own power, using a multi-thruster installation permitting speeds of up to 12 knots. Depending on anticipated southern hemisphere weather conditions, and on com- parative costs, the voyage options were via the Suez Canal, or by way

July, 1998 of the Cape of Good Hope or Cape

Horn, with envisaged homeport arrival in August.

First and second stages of the

Zenit rockets are being manufac- tured in the Ukraine at

Dnepropetrovsk, with the third, or upper stage, known as the Block

DM, coming from Moscow, while payload fairing and interstage structure is supplied from Seattle.

An initial inventory of inert, unfu- eled rocket components will be transported to Long Beach aboard the ACS on its positioning voyage.

Subsequently, componentry trans- fer to the homeport in California will be made using an adapted,

German-owned RoRo vessel.

From buffer storage at the Long

Beach terminal, rocket compo- nents will be moved aboard the

Circle 278 on Reader Service Card

ACS as needed, for assembly in the vessel's cavernous, below-decks factory area.

The launch customers' satellites will be processed in the purpose- built payload handling facility at

Long Beach. The craft will be loaded with hypergolic fuels, encapsulated within a payload fairing made of advanced aero- space composites, and prepared for 9

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