Sea Launch, a multinational joint venture, will deliver two more satellites into orbit this year from its ocean-based platform in the equatorial Pacific.

Company spokesperson Paula Corn said that the company's next rocket -- expected to lift off at the end of September -- would carry a Thuraya communications satellite for the United Arab Emirates. However, the September launch date will depend on whether manufacturer Hughes Spacecraft and Communications delivers the satellite on time.

Sea Launch also hopes to conduct another mission before yearend with a yet-to-be-announced payload.

In the meantime, one of the Sea Launch partners is preparing to roll out three more boosters. This month, the Yuzhnoe production center, based in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, will ship three Zenit rockets to the U.S. where they will join only two remaining Sea Launch vehicles, a Yuzhnoe representative told SPACE.com.

The Zenit 3-SL returned to flight on July 28, successfully delivering the PanAmSat 9 communications satellite. In March, the same rocket failed during its second-stage burn, causing a loss of a mobile phone satellite for ICO Global Communications.

Yuzhnoe also plans to ship a two-stage Zenit rocket to Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this week. The launcher is expected to boost into orbit a classified Tselina satellite providing electronic intelligence for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The rocket launched a similar mission at the beginning of this year.

Yuzhnoe representative said that this launch, currently planned for August 23, most likely would be postponed until September.

Yet, another Zenit carrying a Russian Meteor satellite is scheduled for launch in December, Russian and Ukrainian officials said this week.

If all Zenit missions go as planned, the launcher would fly a unprecedented seven times in a single year -- from two launch pads half-a-world apart.