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Sea Launch floating spaceport’s new owner to resume launches

The Sea Launch is an international commercial project of the seaborne rocket and space complex

Sea Launch platform Viktor Katayev/TASS

Sea Launch platform

© Viktor Katayev/TASS

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. S7 Group, the new owner of the Sea Launch floating spaceport, intends to resume launches in 2019, S7 Group owner Vladislav Filyov said in a presentation at the conference: "Space as Business" organized by Roscosmos and TASS.

"The launches will be resumed from 2019," the presentation says.

According to the presentation, investments in the project of restarting the Sea Launch program have reached $220 million.

Sea Launch

The Sea Launch is an international commercial project of the seaborne rocket and space complex.

Read also

Sea Launch Project may get a new class rocket

Sea Launch Company was established in 1995 for the project’s implementation. Its founders included US Boeing, Russia’s Energiya Corporation, the Norwegian shipyard Kvaerner (currently Aker Solutions), Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Ukrainian Yuzhmash rocket and space enterprise. Sea Launch Company declared its bankruptcy in the summer of 2009 and after its reorganization in 2010 Russia’s Energiya Corporation gained the leading role in the project. Space launches were suspended in 2014.

In late September 2016, S7 signed a contract with Sea Launch Group on the project’s acquisition. The purchase items comprised the Odyssey floating platform, the Sea Launch Commander ship, the ground-based equipment at Long Beach port (California), and also the Sea Launch trademark.

A total of 10-12 launches are expected to be conducted under the project during the first five years.

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