Dormant launch services provider Sea Launch is in talks with a new investor and is looking to secure fresh funding by the “end of February”, CEO Sergey Gugkaev has told SatelliteFinance.
Gugkaev would not be drawn on the origin of the investment, but said that, once the funding is secured, Sea Launch planned to compete for new launch orders.
Dormant launch services provider Sea Launch is in talks with a new investor and is looking to secure fresh funding by the “end of February”, according to CEO Sergey Gugkaev (pictured).
Speaking to SatelliteFinance, Gugkaev cautioned that it may take longer than that to secure the investment, noting “these big transactions are always unpredictable in terms of timing”.
Gugkaev would not be drawn on the origin of the investment, but said that, once the funding is secured, Sea Launch planned to compete for new launch orders.
Sea Launch put its operations on hold in August 2014 as it had a gap in its launch manifest, and said it would use the opportunity to update its systems to make efficiency savings. The company fires payloads from an ocean-based Odyssey platform, a customised drilling rig.
In December Gugkayev told news agency TASS that the recent launch of an Elektro-L satellite in December for the Russian government using a Zenit rocket – the launch vehicle which Sea Launch’s system deploys – had drawn interest from potential customers.
The Zenit rocket is a Russian-Ukrainian collaboration and production was halted due to the ongoing hostilities between the countries. A year ago Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said this was a factor in why the Sea Launch project had been “suspended”, and that there were no plans to use the Ukraine-built rockets in the future.
The Elektro-L launch, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, was reportedly the first time the Zenit had taken flight since Sea Launch lofted Eutelsat-3B in May 2014 (pictured below).
At the start of December TASS had reported that Roscosmos and RSC Energia, which own Sea Launch, were trying to find a buyer or investor for the project as soon as possible due to the US$30m a year maintenance costs.
Last August, Gugkaev told SatelliteFinance he expected the future of Sea Launch to be decided by November, pending key decisions from the Russian government, which has been considering plans to abandon its launch base off the west coast of the US and move it to Brazil or the east of Russia. At the time Gugkaev said a number of potential buyers had expressed interest in Sea Launch.
Rogozin eyes cheap space
Commenting on Russia’s space plans more generally, Rogozin has been quoted as saying that, rather than any grand plans, the country’s main objective was to make space cheaper and reduce the cost of launches.
He said the recent abolition of Roscosmos and the creation of the United Rocket and Space Corporation would reduce bureaucracy.
Rogozin added that the country was working on a super-heavy rocket designed for deep space missions, able to launch a payload of more than 100 tons and perhaps as much as 150 tons.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, due to become operational this year, will be able to launch 53 metric tons to LEO, more than 21 tons to GTO, and 13.2 tons to Mars. ULA’s Delta IV Heavy is the world’s most powerful rocket currently in operation and can take loft almost 29 tons to LEO and more than 14 tons to GTO.
