Sea Launch rocket with Intelsat 27 fails shortly after takeoff
February 1 2013 01:44:48 PM |
by Clark Lindsey, Managing Editor
A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL launch system failed today shortly after lifting off with the Boeing built Intelsat 27 spacecraft aboard:
About 40 seconds in the flight, the rocket appeared to be going off kilter when the webcast was shut down (see video below).
On January 30, 2007 the company suffered a spectacular explosion (see video) on the floating pad platform when attempting to launch the Boeing built NSS-8 satellite for SES New Skies. Although Sea Launch subsequently had a series of successful launches (see launch history here), the company went into bankruptcy in June of 2009.
The company, which initially involved a collaboration of Boeing with Norwegian, Russian and Ukrainian partners, emerged from bankruptcy in October 2010 with the Russian firm Energia owning 85% of the shares. The reorganized Sea-Launch has had 4 successful launches before today's failure.
Last November, AsiaSat contracted Sea Launch as a backup for SpaceX, which is contracted to launch the AsiaSat 6 and AsiaSat 8 satellites in 2014.
