Sea Launch readies satellite for liftoff from ocean platform

LONG BEACH, California (AP) — A satellite designed to provide digital video, Internet and data services for private companies was poised for liftoff atop a Sea Launch Co. rocket on an oceangoing platform floating in the equatorial Pacific.

The Zenit-3SL rocket was scheduled to blast off with the 9,081-pound (4,086-kilogram) Galaxy XIII/Horizons-1 satellite around 9 p.m. PDT Tuesday (0400 GMT Wednesday), according to Long Beach-based Sea Launch, a partnership of The Boeing Co. and Russian, Ukrainian and Norwegian companies.

Part of the satellite’s capacity will be used by the Horizons joint venture of PamAmSat of Wilton, Connecticut, and JSAT of Tokyo to expand services in North America and to extend services to Japan and Asia via a relay station in Hawaii.

The remaining capacity will be operated separately as part of PanAmSat’s Galaxy service to the domestic U.S. cable industry.

The satellite was built by Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, California.

Sea Launch uses a self-propelled launch platform and a command ship that sail from their home port in California to the equator, where the physics of Earth’s rotation allows rockets to carry heavier payloads than they could from other locations.

The company is owned by The Boeing Co., RSC-Energia of Russia, Anglo-Norwegian Kvaerner Group of Norway and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine.

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On the Net:

http://www.sea-launch.com

http://www.panamsat.com

http://www.jsat.net