The launch platform The rocket The ship How it works

Launch Complex

The project consists of 3 parts. The first is the Oil rig (Odyssey) which will launch the rockets. It is a converted Norwegian offshore oil rig. The rig was rebuilt by Norwegian Kvaerner in Stavanger, Norway and Vyborg, Russia. The Odyssey is 200 meters long and 70 meters wide. The rig can accommodate 68 crew and spacecraft personell, but will have a bigger crew right before the launch. The Odyssey is self-propelled, and semi-submersible, giving it more stability when launching the rockets. It weighs 30.000 metric tons while floating on the surface and 50.600 metric tons when submerged. The rig has also been equiped with a weather proof rocket hangar, fuel tanks with propellant for the rocket and an automated rocket transporter-erector system.

The rocket

The rocket which is going to be launched from the Odyssey is Ukrain built with a Russian Block DM-SL upper stage module. The rockets name is Zenit 2 and has 3 stages, all kerosene/liquid oxygen fueled. There have been some debate lately if the rocket is safe to use. The launch successfull rate is very low for the Zenit rocket. After 28 launches, starting in 1986, only 22 have been successfull. 5 of the unsuccessfull launches has gone the wrong way or exploded, and the sixth failed to put the satellite into orbit. But the rocket is said to be very reliable, despite the problems so far. It stands 65 meters tall, 4,5 meters wide and has a payload capability of 5,7 metric tons. This means that it has the capability to launch the Hughes HS-601 and HS-702 models, to low, medium or geostationary Earth orbits. Hughes stands for 40% of the world's commercial communications satellites currently in operation and has it's base near the Sea Launch base in California.

Control ship

The ship which is going to supply the Odyssey with rockets and control it, is called Sea Launch Commander. It was built in Glasgow, Scotland, is 200 meters long and 32 meters wide and weighs 34.000 metric tons. Commander has customer and crew accommodations for 240 people. The Commander will move the rocket from it's cargo bay where it has been assembeld and onto the Odyssey where it will be launched. During a launch all 120 -150 people on the Odyssey is moved onto the Commander for safety reasons and the ship moves away from the launch area. The whole launch of the rocket is monitored from and controlled from the Commander.

The adventurus project

The reason the project was started was to cut costs of a rocket launch. Rocket launches by the americans are most often done at Cape Canaveral and by the Russians from Baikonur. Both these launch areas are a long way from the equator. The equator is the best place to launch rockets because the catapult effect of the Earth's rotational speed is the greatest there. By launching from the equator you get 1600 kilometers an hour of free speed. To escape the gravity of the Earth you need to have a speed of 4400 kilometers an hour, so you get a lot for free. By launching the rockets from the equator instead of Cape Canaveral you can launch a payload weighing up to 30% more. This means you can get more into space for the same cost or use less fuel to get the same mission done, in other words, the launch gets cheaper. Big companies like Hughes and Loral have already signed up for several launches of their satellites using the Sea Launch complex. Since the home base of the Sea Launch is in California and the factories building the satellites for Hughes and Loral are in California, you don't have big costs in moving the satellites to the launch complex. The way it is now, they have to move them across the USA to Cape Canaveral in Florida, resulting in bigger costs.

The satellites themselves also have to use less fuel to get to their destination from a launch at the equator. To correct the satellites orbit in geostationary orbit to directly over the equator (where most satellites, like TV and comunications satellites are) they have to use a lot of fuel, if they are launched from Cape Canaveral. The satellites launched from Sea Launch don't have to do this since they are allready in an equator orbit, the only fuel usage is from getting it into the geosationary orbit, 36.000 kilometers out into space where they move with the same speed as the Earth and therby seems to be in a fixed position, giving us a signal from the same place all the time.