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Top Roscosmos officials evaluate Sea Launch's readiness for future Soyuz missions

The sea compound comprises the Odyssey floating launch platform and the assembly and command vessel

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The top management of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, as well as industry experts and S7 officials, have assessed the readiness of the Sea Launch space complex for missions of the prospective Soyuz-5 and Soyuz-6 rockets, Roscosmos said in a statement on Tuesday.

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"The Roscosmos leadership, along with experts of the launch industry and the S7 company assessed the scope of work that needs to be done to ensure that the Odyssey floating launch platform and the command ship are ready for launches of the prospective Soyuz-5 and Soyuz-6 rockets, currently in development by the Samara-based Progress Rocket and Space Center," Roscosmos said in a Twitter post.

Since 2016, S7 Group (the holding company that integrates S7 Space Transport Systems) has been the owner of the assets of the Sea Launch rocket and space compound where 36 launches (including 32 successful) were carried out before being suspended in 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.

This spring, the command ship and the floating platform were taken from the United States to Russia’s Far East. On March 17, the Sea Launch Commander ship arrived to Slavyanka and berthed at the Slavyanka Shipyard. The Odyssey spacecraft launch platform arrived to the port a couple of weeks later, on March 30.

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