IN THE summer of 1998, a strange flat-topped vessel will sail out of Long
Beach in southern California for a 10-day cruise in the Pacific. Called Odyssey,
the cumbersome craft started life as an oil-drilling platform. But it will not
be searching for oil or minerals beneath the seabed.
Odyssey is a floating launch pad and its destination is a point on the
equator a few kilometres east of the tiny island of Kiritimati, formerly
Christmas Island鈥攑art of the Kiribati group. There Odyssey will turn its
attention skyward. When all the crew have been evacuated, a fully fuelled
Soviet-designed three-stage rocket carrying a commercial satellite will emerge
from the platform鈥檚 modified bowels and the countdown will begin, controlled
remotely from an accompanying support ship. If all goes to plan, Odyssey鈥檚 first
rocket launch, in June 1998, will be followed by up to eight others within a
year.
The project is called Sea Launch and is the brainchild of the Boeing
Commercial Space Company, and its partners in an international consortium that
includes a Norwegian shipbuilder, a Russian aerospace company and two Ukrainian
rocket makers. Sea Launch hopes to cash in on the plans of the world鈥檚 major
telecommunications companies, who intend over the next few years to boost the
number of commercial satellites orbiting the Earth from today鈥檚 count of 155 to
more than 1000.
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These companies are particularly interested in launching into a special orbit
39 500 kilometres above the equator where a satellite鈥檚 speed matches the
Earth鈥檚 rotation. Satellites in this so-called geosynchronous orbit sit
continuously over the same area of the surface, an essential requirement for
commercial satellite television or for international telephone calls between
America and Europe, for example.
Other plans for mobile communications networks involve large numbers of
satellites at lower altitudes. By 2000, Teledesic, a telecommunications company
based in Kirkland, Washington, wants to begin launching the first of 840
satellites that will eventually form a $9 billion telecommunications
network 700 kilometres above the planet.
And the American chip manufacturer Motorola has already raised nearly a third
of the $3.3 billion it needs to build and launch a global communications
network of 66 satellites. The project is called Iridium and its pocket-telephone
service is due to begin in 1998.
These projects and the increased demand for geosynchronous sites will create
a huge demand for launches. 鈥淚f the projections are accurate, to launch just 900
new satellites over the next ten years means doing about two a week. That鈥檚 a
lot of business,鈥� says Scott Chase, editor of Via Satellite, a trade
publication covering the commercial satellite industry.
Enter Sea Launch, which seeks to claim a piece of the pie by offering a
launch service that is reliable and cheap. Today, Arianespace, a consortium of
European businesses, has 60 per cent of the market. It charges $55
million per launch and has 70 planned for the next two years. The American
aerospace corporation Lockheed Martin charges $50 million for a ride on
its Atlas rockets and has another 25 per cent of the market. The new rival, Sea
Launch, eventually hopes to charge $40 million per launch, so keeping
launch costs low will have a crucial effect on the group鈥檚 fortunes.
But why build a floating launch pad when bases on land have a proven track
record? Launching from the equator, where the speed of the Earth鈥檚 rotation is
greatest, gives satellites an extra boost into orbit. And equatorial launches
also provide the shortest route into the all-important geosynchronous
orbits. 鈥淎ll rocket launches are a trade-off between payload and fuel,鈥� says
Elliot Pulham, a spokesman for Boeing. 鈥淟aunching from the equator means you can
maximise the payload and minimise the amount of fuel needed.鈥�
Equatorial launches into geosynchronous orbits are also simpler than those
from other sites. To understand why, imagine the plane of a satellite鈥檚 orbit
and the way it intersects the Earth. The plane of a geosynchronous orbit, for
example, bisects the planet through the equator, rather like the plane of
Saturn鈥檚 rings. To place a satellite in this orbit, a launcher must align itself
with this plane.
From anywhere other than the equator, a rocket must manoeuvre into this plane
during flight. This requires rocket engines known as kick motors which guide
satellites into their final orbits. 鈥淭he thing about kick motors is that
sometimes they fail. They can work erratically or not at all,鈥� explains Anthony
Curtis, a professor of space technology at Salisbury State College in Maryland.
鈥淭hat happens infrequently, but more than people like,鈥� he says. Since an
equatorial launch pad is already aligned with the equatorial plane, complex
manoeuvres are unnecessary.
The accuracy of the launch is hugely important. If a satellite ends up in the
wrong orbit, it must use its own fuel to change position. This fuel would
otherwise be used for minor position and attitude adjustments during its
mission. In the worst case, a satellite can be so far off course that it needs
all its fuel to travel to its intended orbit. Of course, launches from
equatorial regions still require kick motors but there is less chance that they
will be needed.
For these reasons, equatorial launch sites are better than any other on the
planet. Arianespace, for example, lofts its rockets and satellites from Kourou,
a base in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America, roughly 5
degrees north of the equator. But suitable equatorial launch sites are few and
far between. To begin with, there is relatively little land at equatorial
latitudes and most of this is either politically unstable or cannot guarantee
the clear weather needed for a rocket launch. This is why Boeing and its
partners have opted for a floating launch pad that can sail to the equator.
While French Guiana is close to the equator, Boeing promises that Sea Launch
will operate almost exactly on top of it. The only type of orbit that doesn鈥檛
benefit from an equatorial launch site is one that passes over the Earth鈥檚
poles. In this case, Sea Launch would operate about 1400 kilometres off the
Californian coast, far enough from the shore to ensure that discarded rocket
stages cannot fall on inhabited land.
Sea Launch won鈥檛 be the first vessel to launch from the sea. 鈥淩emember, we鈥檝e
known how to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles from submarines since
the 60s. In a sense, we already know something about how to do it,鈥� says
Curtis.
The Sea Launch operation can be divided into three components. The first part
is the 30 000-tonne Odyssey. 鈥淭his was an oil-drilling platform designed for
working in the North Sea, so it can withstand a lot of stress,鈥� says Ron Olson,
the company president. 鈥淲e obviously wouldn鈥檛 launch in bad weather, but with
Odyssey we can wait it out safely.鈥� Olson gained his experience of the rocket
industry working out how to intercept and destroy satellites as a manager in the
US Defense Department鈥檚 antisatellite programme.
Boeing鈥檚 Norwegian partner, Kv忙rner, is the largest shipbuilding company in
Europe. It is refitting the semisubmersible platform at its shipyard in
Stavanger, Norway. The self-propelled platform, 130 metres long and 70 metres
wide, will carry a crew of 20 during the journey to and from the launch
site.
Robotic minder
Kv忙rner鈥檚 job is to add the five-storey hangar which will house the rockets,
fuel tanks and structural supports to help the platform withstand the stresses
of a launch. Odyssey will later be fitted with a robotic transporter-erector
system. Operating without a single member of the crew on board, the system
hoists the rocket from the horizontal to the vertical position and controls the
transfer of fuel to the rocket through 25 fuel lines. The robotic system must
maintain 2500 electrical connections with instruments on the rocket which
mission control monitors prior to launch, and empty fuel from the vehicle if the
launch is aborted.
Kv忙rner is also improving the stability of the platform. 鈥淲e can accept no
more than a 2 degree swing,鈥� says Bj枚rn Lierin, an engineer from Kv忙rner
who is working on the refit of the Odyssey. The Odyssey鈥檚 stability depends on
several factors. The original platform sat on eight pillars supported by two
catamaran-type hulls. Kv忙rner is extending the size of the platform and adding
two more pillars to increase the stability. Before the launch, the legs fill
with water so that the platform sits closer to the water. The extra ballast
helps stabilise the platform.
Saltwater corrosion might damage the delicate electronics, so exposure to sea
spray is kept to a minimum. 鈥淲e control the internal atmosphere right up until
we roll the rocket out and launch it,鈥� says Pulham. The satellites, of course,
are already tightly sealed inside the rocket fairing by the manufacturer.
Launch instructions will come from the second component of Sea Launch: the
Assembly and Command ship (ACS), a 200-metre, 34 000-tonne vessel being built
from scratch in Scotland by Kv忙rner at the Govan shipyard in Glasgow. 鈥淭hink of
it as a mission control that floats,鈥� says Pulham.
The ACS is on schedule to be in the water by Christmas and will then sail to
St Petersburg in Russia to be fitted with the electronic equipment it needs to
act as mission control. The vessel has a cruising range of almost 30 000
kilometres and accommodation for 250 crew members, customers and observers.
鈥淲e鈥檒l start with only one rocket and one mission at a time,鈥� says Pulham,
鈥渂ut eventually the idea is to take several rockets at each sailing.鈥� The
rockets will roll on and roll off like vehicles on a cross-channel ferry. 鈥淲e鈥檒l
launch the first, then pull into the lee of an island, transfer a second rocket
to the platform and do another launch. The platform can carry enough fuel to
launch three rockets.鈥�
Above the rocket storage area will be the main launch control room. These
levels also house the accommodation, including staterooms and meeting places.
鈥淭here鈥檚 even a pool and shuffleboard court,鈥� says Pulham. This superstructure
is topped with an array of antennas and radar dishes that keep the ship in
constant contact with the Odyssey launch pad, the rocket, other command stations
and various communications satellites. For the launch, the ACS will be anchored
5 kilometres or so from the platform. A back-up mission control centre in Russia
will be linked to the sea site via orbiting communications satellites.
In port, the ACS will act as the rocket assembly centre. Sections of the
rocket manufactured in Seattle, Moscow and Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine will be
transported by cargo ship or train to Long Beach, where Boeing started building
work on a new 6-hectare facility in early August.
The last piece in the jigsaw is the rocket itself. Sea Launch will use an
expendable, three-stage launcher based on designs from the former Soviet Union.
The first two stages were developed in the early 1980s by the Ukrainian
companies KB Yuzhnoye and PO Yuzhmash, the principal designers and makers of the
Soviet Union鈥檚 launch vehicles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Together
they make up the two-stage Zenit, which can lift 5700 kilograms into
geosynchronous orbit or 13 000 kilograms into low-Earth orbit. Only the new
Ariane 5 booster and the space shuttle can routinely carry similar payloads (18
000 kilograms and 13 000 kilograms respectively into low-Earth orbit). Unlike
Ariane 5, which failed on its only launch so far, Zenit has proved reliable. It
has flown more than two dozen times without failure since the early 1980s when
it was designed.
The Zenit booster also boasts two additional benefits. First, it can be
assembled and tested horizontally, so this work can be done inside the hull of a
ship. Second, it uses kerosene and liquid oxygen as its fuel. 鈥淭he basic
by-products of kerosene and oxygen are water vapour, carbon dioxide and some
soot. That鈥檚 not to say the exhaust is perfectly clean but it鈥檚 probably no
worse than a bus鈥攁 really big bus,鈥� says Pulham. Other rockets use highly
toxic fuels such as hydrazine, which leaves unpleasant residues after a launch
that take hours to dissipate.
The third stage of the rocket, which includes the all-important kick motors,
will be built by RSC-Energia, based in Moscow and once the Soviet Union鈥檚
primary supplier of satellites and spacecraft. Energia鈥檚 Block DM upper stage is
also highly regarded and has successfully flown more than 150 missions. Boeing,
which has overall programme and marketing oversight, is responsible for building
the fairing and fairing-to-rocket adapter that connects payload to rocket.
鈥淪omething like Sea Launch probably couldn鈥檛 happen without a Zenit rocket,鈥�
says Curtis. 鈥淚t wouldn鈥檛 be cheap enough. But the Russians are hard up for the
work and they鈥檒l do their part cheaply. That鈥檚 the key.鈥� Following the break-up
of the Soviet Union, companies like Energia, Yuzhmash and Yuzhnoye have all
become eager, if not desperate, for new business.
Cost cutter
Sea Launch will cut costs in other ways too. Unlike land-based launch
facilities, there is no expensive property to buy or maintain in a remote part
of the world. And there will be no long-term housing of personnel in remote
areas, a significant cost factor. After each launch (or series of launches), the
Odyssey and its command ship will return to Long Beach, their home port.
According to industry reports, Boeing has sunk up to $500 million in
Sea Launch, and expects to make a profit on its investment. Launches have
already been booked. Hughes Space and Communications, which makes about half of
the world鈥檚 satellites, has signed on as the first customer. Hughes is based in
El Segundo, California, only 30 kilometres from the Long Beach port. It has
ordered 10 launches over the next five years, with an option for 10 more, at a
reported cost of $1 billion. SpaceSystems/Loral, another satellite
builder, has also announced an order for five launches.
Nonetheless, some observers remain sceptical. 鈥淏oeing is doing an awful lot
on faith, since it really doesn鈥檛 know what the market will turn out to be,鈥�
says Paul Nisbet, an aerospace analyst for JSA Research in Newport, Rhode
Island. 鈥淭here are all sorts of companies with schemes for launching satellites.
And what about all of those countries already involved in launching commercial
rockets or those who want to, like China and Japan, for example? Their space
industries are heavily subsidised. To what degree are they going to permit
Boeing or anybody to simply take market share? Somebody鈥檚 got to lose in all of
迟丑颈蝉.鈥�
For Sea Launch to realise a profit, industry observers say, it must quickly
reach an annual launch rate of six to eight rockets. Nisbet is wary of such talk
about routine launches, observing that at one time space shuttle missions were
supposed to become everyday events鈥攁s common as bus departures. 鈥淎nd that
never quite happened,鈥� he notes.
Nevertheless, Olson remains confident that Sea Launch will be a success.
Referring to his old job in the antisatellite programme, he says: 鈥淚 think it鈥檒l
probably prove a lot easier to put satellites up than knock them down.鈥� He won鈥檛
have to wait long to find out.
