Sea Launch has signed up its first customer since last month’s launch failure with a deal to place a satellite for US-based EchoStar in 2015.
Under a preliminary agreement, Sea Launch will use its heavy-lift Zenit-3SL rocket to loft the bird from its…
Sea Launch has signed up its first customer since last month’s launch failure with a deal to place a satellite for US-based EchoStar in 2015.
Under a preliminary agreement, Sea Launch will use its heavy-lift Zenit-3SL rocket to loft the bird from its ocean-based Odyssey platform.
The contract builds on a decade of cooperation between the two companies, which most recently saw Sea Launch place the EchoStar XI satellite in 2008.
Sea Launch president Kjell Karlsen said: “We are pleased to extend our relationship with EchoStar and we look forward to providing the required flexibility, performance and diversity of supply necessary to support their business plan.”
Anders Johnson, president of EchoStar Satellite Services, said the deal will support the operator’s plans to expand its North American fleet.
“We have been pleased with Sea Launch’s performance on past missions and look forward to continued success,” said Johnson.
The agreement represents an important vote of confidence in Sea Launch, which recently failed to place a satellite for Intelsat in its only mission slated for 2013. That failure threatened to derail the company’s plan to use the quiet period this year to build up its hardware supply and look for new contracts.
As well as the EchoStar agreement, Sea Launch is serving as a back up for an AsiaSat satellite in 2014, and has two commitments each with Intelsat and Eutelsat.
FROB eyes April conclusion
At the beginning of February Sea Launch announced that a Zenit-3SL rocket carrying Intelsat-27 had failed approximately 40 seconds after liftoff. The company was unable to find any recoverable debris from where the rocket and satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean, roughly 4 km from the Odyssey platform.
Several failure review boards were set up following the incident. The company’s main Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) plans to analyse final reports from these investigations in the second half of April.
The latest status report from the Ukrainian failure investigation commission, which includes representatives from the rocket’s manufacturer, said it had decided to focus on the first stage main engine thrust vector control system.
Since the failure there has also been renewed discussion within the Russian Federation government on how to secure the long term viability of Sea Launch, whose parent company RSC Energia is controlled by the state.
Preliminary recommendations are expected to be put forward next month.
The launch provider had also been on the verge of securing a five-year US$200m revolving credit facility before the failure. The financing was going to be secured with a state-owned bank, helping it to mitigate the intermittent nature of customer contract payments to provide a steady funding stream for hardware. However, it is thought that these plans have been put on hold.
In the meantime SatelliteFinance understands it has a small bridge financing with the same bank for between US$25m-US$30m, which will stay in place until the revolver is secured.
Intelsat selects Arianespace for three launches
Meanwhile rival launch provider Arianespace of France has announced it has been picked to place three satellites for Intelsat through 2017.
The three missions – representing the 52nd, 53rd, and 54th birds Arianespace will have placed for the operator – will include the launches of Intelsat’s high throughput EpicNG–class satellites.
Since the beginning of the year, Arianespace has announced launch contracts with Paris-based Eutelsat and Australian operator NBN. The company claims to have a market share of more than 50%.
