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S7 Space to relocate Sea Launch floating spaceport to Russia in 2020

By now, the company has obtained all the necessary permissions for the spaceport’s relocation

MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. S7 Space will relocate the Sea Launch floating platform and the command vessel to Russia’s Far East in 2020, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

"The relocation of the launch platform and the assembly and command ship to a Far Eastern port is planned in 2020," the statement says.

By now, the company "has obtained all the necessary permissions for the spaceport’s relocation, including from the US Department of State," the press office specified.

After they are relocated to Russian territory, the launch platform and the assembly and command ship will be temporarily based at the Slavyanka Ship Repair Plant in the port of Slavyanka, the press office said.

S7 Group (the holding company that integrates S7 Space Transport Systems) is the owner of the assets of the Sea Launch rocket and space compound where 36 launches (including 32 successful) were carried out by the end of May 2014. The sea compound comprises the Odyssey floating launch platform and the assembly and command vessel where rockets are assembled and control of pre-launch operations is exercised. The vessels are based in the state of California, the United States.

Earlier, Energia Overseas Limited (a subsidiary of Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation) held a 95% stake in the Sea Launch project.