By DANIEL TAUB
Staff Reporter
An international consortium led by Boeing Co. expects to complete construction early next month on the Long Beach headquarters of its Sea Launch Co.
The primary business of the $500 million venture will be to sail a self-propelled floating platform from Long Beach to equatorial waters, where it will be used to launch satellites into orbit.
Besides the platform, Sea Launch’s other primary asset is an “assembly-and-command” ship where the satellites will be attached to rockets before being transferred to the platform. The ship will contain all the computer equipment used to launch the satellites.
The ship and platform are both having equipment installed and tested at two different shipyards near St. Petersburg, Russia.
The ship is expected to reach Long Beach in July, and the platform is expected to follow in August.
Boeing officials expect Sea Launch’s first launch to take place on Oct. 30. It is to be a telecommunications satellite built by El Segundo-based Hughes Space and Communications Co. for PanAmSat Corp., the world’s largest satellite owner and operator.
The satellite, known as the Model HS 702, will be the largest and most powerful satellite ever launched, and will provide PanAmSat with increased transmission capabilities for video, phone and business data, said Fran Slimmer, a Hughes spokeswoman.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be the first one to launch that spacecraft,” said Amy Buhrig, manager of business development for Sea Launch.
Under the program, satellites will be sent from their manufacturers to the Port of Long Beach. There, they will be attached to rockets made in Ukraine, Russia and Seattle and loaded onto the 436-foot-long, self-propelled launch platform.
The platform will then be sent about 1,400 miles southeast of Hawaii, near the equator, where the satellites will be launched. That site provides the greatest benefit from the earth’s rotational forces for launching.
Initially, the platform will sail back to Long Beach after each launch. But eventually, Sea Launch hopes to have enough business to warrant leaving the platform at the equator, and transporting satellites down from Long Beach via ship.
Sea Launch Co. is a partnership between Seattle-based Boeing, which owns the largest stake (40 percent), and Moscow-based RSC-Energia, Norway-based Kvaerner Maritime a.s. and Ukraine-based KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash.
