KIEV (Reuters) - Sea Launch, a satellite launch venture led by Boeing, will carry out its second commercial rocket launch from a floating platform in January 2000, a Ukrainian aerospace official said on Thursday.
The venture uses Ukrainian-made Zenit rockets. "The second commercial launch of a Ukrainian Zenit-3SL booster is scheduled for January 2000,'' Stanislav Konyukhov, general director of Ukraine's Yuzhnoye rocket design bureau, told a news conference.
He did not give the exact date of blast-off or name the client. But Russia's Interfax news agency said the rocket would launch a communications satellite owned by international telecoms consortium ICO Global Communications Ltd.
Sea Launch, which also includes Norway's Kvaerner and Russia's Energia rocket plant, has had two successful launches so far, including a test launch in March.
A DirectTV satellite was put in orbit on October 10 for Hughes Space and Communications, part of American automotive group General Motors.
The launch site in the South Pacific Ocean takes advantage of the Earth's relatively high rotational speed at the equator, allowing heavier payloads of up to five tons to be launched.
Ukrainian space authorities hope the project will help the struggling ex-Soviet republic to revive its potentially lucrative space industry.
Konyukhov said the company was also working on a joint venture with Italy's Fiat-Avia to modernize Ukraine's Tsyklon rocket booster for use in commercial launches.
He said Brazil and the United States were both being considered as potential launch sites, and talks were under way to try to include some U.S. companies in the venture.
He said he hoped talks with both Fiat and the U.S. firms would be resolved by the end of the year.
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