PARIS - Sea Launch Co.
successfully returned to flight Jan. 15 after being grounded for nearly a year,
placing the Thuraya-3 mobile communications satellite into orbit and permitting
Abu Dhabi-based Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications to proceed with
long-stalled plans to expand into China and the rest of East Asia.
The
Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket proceeded through its launch countdown without
incident, opening what Long Beach, Calif.-based Sea Launch hopes will be a
five-launch year. The company is returning to activity after an on-pad
failure Jan. 21, 2007, that took the vehicle out of service.
A
November attempt to launch Thuraya-3 was scrubbed because of unusually rough
ocean currents at Sea Launch's mid-Pacific Ocean launch site.
Thuraya-3,
which like the first two Thuraya satellites was built by Boeing Satellite
Systems International of El Segundo, Calif., will be stationed in
geosynchronous orbit at 98.5 degrees east longitude.
For
Thuraya, it will be a new orbital position permitting the company to extend its
mobile services business eastward into Asia.
Yousuf
Al Sayed, Thuraya's chief executive, said the company expects to begin
commercial operations on Thuraya-3 within two months. "We will immediately
start deploying in China, which is important as a land market," Al Sayed
said. "But we are also preparing a maritime service in Asia."
Al
Sayed said a fourth Thuraya satellite that would provide in-orbit backup for
the Thuraya-2 and Thuraya-3 spacecraft likely would be contracted. He did not
specify when the satellite would be ordered.
Thuraya's
current coverage area includes much of Europe and all of the Middle East, plus
much of South and Central Asia and Africa.
For
Sea Launch, the flight ended 51 weeks of occasionally frustrating
return-to-flight plans and put a stop to the company's operations at a time of
strong growth in the commercial satellite sector. In addition to a full backlog
for the ocean-based operations, Sea Launch Co. is developing a Land Launch
variant to be operated from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Land Launch's debut has struggled because of rocket supply-chain issues and,
more recently, delays in the delivery of several satellites.
Several
Sea Launch customers, saying their businesses could not wait for Sea Launch to
recover from the January 2007 failure, signed with competing launch-services
providers in 2007.
Sea
Launch Co. President Rob Peckham said after the launch that the company expects
its next launch to be in March. The Land Launch version is also scheduled to
debut in 2008. "It feels good to be back," Peckham said, adding that
the Thuraya-3 satellite was placed into an orbit whose parameters were
exceptionally good.
Valery
Aliev, deputy general designer for RSC Energia of Moscow, a principal Sea
Launch contractor and shareholder, said Thuraya-3, while not the heaviest Sea
Launch payload, "was probably the most difficult and challenging one for
us. We have a special feeling for all our customers, but we have a special
feeling for Thuraya," Aliev said after the launch. "We really wanted
to pull through for them."
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