Russia’s deputy prime minister has suggested that Sea Launch could abandon its launch base off the west coast of the United States and move its operations to Brazil.
Dmitry Rogozin told state-funded broadcaster Russia Today that the government planned…
Russia’s deputy prime minister has suggested that Sea Launch could abandon its launch base off the west coast of the United States and move its operations to Brazil.
Dmitry Rogozin told state-funded broadcaster Russia Today that the government planned to move Sea Launch’s Odyssey launch platform away from ‘US shores’ and utilise it elsewhere, most likely within the BRICS group of nations.
More specifically he said that there are ongoing talks with the Brazilian authorities over the possibility of carrying out joint launches from the South American country, pointing out that Brazil already had a space site close to the ocean.
He added that as part of the increased cooperation between the countries, Russia will assist Brazil in further developing its domestic space industry. Brazil currently houses a ground station for Russia’s Glonass system
The Odyssey platform was designed for the Zenit-3SL rocket, a launcher that is predominantly constructed in the Ukraine. Production of the rocket has been halted due to the ongoing turmoil in the country and Rogozin said that this was partly why the Sea Launch project had been ‘suspended’ and that there were no plans to use the Ukraine-built rockets in the future.
When asked about the interview a Sea Launch representative said: “Sea Launch has no specific comment regarding Mr. Rogozin’s remarks. The relocation of the Sea Launch system has not been discussed at the Board level within the company.”
In August 2014, Sea Launch announced that it was putting its operations on hold until mid-2015 while it carries out a series of cost reduction measures to address the upcoming gap in its manifest.
A central part of this is to take its Sea Launch Commander ship and Odyssey launch platform out of service temporarily during the inactive period.
However, the company’s CEO Serguei Gugkaev pointed out that it “continues to aggressively market all available launch opportunities beginning in mid-2015 and will maintain a short launch call-up readiness state.”
To that end, Sea Launch has four whitetail vehicles in various stages of completion that could support a launch as early as June 2015.
Having emerged from bankruptcy protection under the ownership of Russian rocket manufacturer Energia in 2011, Sea Launch has struggled to secure new launch contracts.
Its situation was made more complicated last year when the Russian state announced its intention to consolidate the country’s space industry under a single entity, United Rocket and Space Corporation.
As part of that, the president and general designer of Energia, Vitaly Lopota, left the company in mid-2014 to become vice president for technological development at URSC. One of his first tasks is to prepare proposals regarding the future of Sea Launch.
