MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Russia’s RKK Energia space corporation could present its proposals to the government on the future of the Sea Launch project, which uses Russian-Ukrainian rockets, by early April, the corporation’s president Vladimir Solntsev said on Tuesday.
"We are preparing a number of proposals on the Sea Launch project that will be sent to the government by early April 2015. All the decisions on the future of this project will be taken after a detailed consideration at the level of the government," Solntsev said.
The key factors in the decision-making process on the Sea Launch project could be its "economic efficiency, the level of interest of potential customers and technical possibility of fulfilling the project in a way for Russia to make the most of it," he said.
"Several options for the project’s development are currently being studied. Each of them has the right to live. But a thorough analysis is needed to take a weighted decision," Solntsev said.
The Sea Launch international company was founded in 1995 with the participation of US aerospace giant Boeing, Russia's Energia, Norway's Kvaerner and Ukrainian’s design bureaus Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash.
This is a major commercial international project on creating and using a sea-based rocket and space complex. The multinational Sea Launch floating cosmodrome launched Zenit-3SL rockets provided by Yuzhmash with the Block DM-SL upper stage, manufactured by RKK Energia.
The Sea Launch suspended its operations until mid-2015, the company announced in August. Media reports earlier said that Russia’s new heavy-lift Angara-A5 rocket could replace the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket in the Sea Launch project.