Sea launch, thuraya, energynet, subay, sub way, seriesub
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The long countdown has begun for the second attempt to launch a mobile voice and data services satellite from a Pacific Ocean platform.
The Boeing-built Thuraya-3 mobile satellite was scheduled to take off Tuesday from a spot on the equator. A 44-minute launch window opens at 6:49 a.m. EST, said Sea Launch Co., the world’s only ocean-based space launch company.
The first attempt in November was foiled because of unusually strong currents that affected Sea Launch’s oceangoing rocket platform.
The self-propelled platform and the launch command ship had to return to home port in Long Beach, resupply and sail back to the Pacific Ocean launch site.
The latest mission involves putting a mobile voice and data services satellite for Abu Dhabi-based Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. into orbit
The Sea Launch system is designed to take advantage of physics that allow a rocket launched from the equator to carry a heavier payload into orbit than it could if the launch point was elsewhere on the Earth’s surface.
Sea Launch is owned by Boeing Co., RSC-Energia of Moscow, Aker ASA of Oslo, Norway, and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Tags: energynet, Sea launch, seriesub, sub way, subay, thuraya