Imagine launching rockets from an old oil platform in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
Sea Launch is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever encountered. The whole concept is something I would have thought existed only in movies, not twenty miles down the freeway from me.
Think incredible, as in a James Bond kind of incredible.
Imagine a derelict oil platform from the North Sea rescued by a Norwegian company and retrofitted into a semi-submersible, self-propelled floating launch pad that can be positioned for launch in almost any water in the world. Add a rocket built by Ukrainian and Russian companies that were once designed to carry nuclear weapons but are now perfect carriers for communications satellites.
Last but not least, add Boeing as the satellite payload integrator and rocket launch operator.
Put them together in an international partnership, and you get the multinational company, Sea Launch.
Sea Launch was formed in 1995 to provide low-cost commercial rocket launch services for heavy payload satellites bound for geosynchronous orbit. They deliver super-heavy satellites into a fixed-position orbit that follows the Earth’s rotation. And they launch from the equator because it has the most direct path to orbit, so it doesn’t require as much fuel to get there, saving the customer money.
The rocket is built, and the satellite is integrated into it at its home port in Long Beach, California. Once that’s complete, they load the rocket onto the Launch Platform, which sails out to the equator along with a support ship that serves as mission control. Once in position, they launch the rocket, delivering the satellite into its intended orbit, then turn around and sail back to Long Beach. Lather, rinse, repeat. And now you get to listen to your favorite XM Radio station in Tuba City, Arizona, or wherever. You get the idea.
It truly looks like something you would see in a movie, but it’s real.
Sea Launch broadcasts each of its rocket launches live – either on the web or on the web and satellite TV. That’s where I fit into the grand scheme of things. I work as the Truck Producer during the launches. To date, I’ve worked on 24 launches.
The rocket business is a high-risk business, and it’s never a 100% sure thing that a mission will be successful. It’s always a bit nerve-racking leading up to a launch. Occasionally it isn’t and makes for a terrible day at work, an explosion that would make Michael Bay green with envy, and the most popular youtube video for several days running (thanks to some rocket fan that recorded the broadcast and posted it). Sea Launch has a fantastic launch record. Of their twenty-nine missions to date, twenty-seven have been a complete success.
Watching a rocket blast off a floating platform into the sky is spectacular. It truly looks like something you would see in some action movie as part of an elaborate set, but it’s real.
How cool is that?
Norton Sales in North Hollywood is another James Bond type of place for rocketry, which I highlight in this story I produced for WIRED Science.
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