The first launch of a commercial broadcast satellite from a launch platform in the middle of the Pacific Ocean will take place late Saturday night ET.
Sea Launch's principal owner, The Boeing Co., said the Sea Launch rocket will lift the 7,600 pound DIRECTV 1-R direct broadcast satellite into geostationary orbit (GEO) from its floating launch platform on the Equator 1,400 miles south of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
DIRECTV 1-R is a Hughes HS 601-HP satellite, the 50th in a family of broadcast satellites built by Hughes Space Communications Co. to be launched into space. It features a power supply of more than 7.5 kilowatts, which will operate 16 high power Ku band transponders for direct broadcast television service to all 50 states.
Sea Launch is the first business venture to take the concept of a launch from a floating platform beyond the idea stage. Launching on the Equator gives extra lift to a rocket because the Earth spins faster at the Equator and makes it easier for satellites to reach geosynchronous orbit, where almost all communications satellites are targeted.
Besides offering this advantage, Sea Launch also allows customers to choose their sites and reduces the safety issues that impose restraints on land launches.
Sea Launch is a global partnership among Boeing; Kvaerner Maritime of Oslo; RSC Energia of Moscow and KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine. Boeing built the Sea Launch home port in Long Beach, California and the payload fairings on the rocket. It is also responsible for program integration. Energia builds the rocket's upper stage, Yuzhnoye, the first two stages. Kvaerner converted a North Sea oil drilling platform into the launch platform and contracted with the Govan shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland to build the Sea Launch assembly and command ship which accompanied the complex to its Pacific launch site.
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