The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington is conducting a careful review of the block purchases of the Zenit launch vehicle being marketed by the Boeing Sea Launch consortium, SpaceCast was told last week. "We are currently gathering data, both from the Ukraine as well as the companies involved, to make sure they are complying with our (launch service) agreements," Catherine Novelli of the Trade Representatives office said. Sea Launch has sold blocks of the Zenit, Russia's most modern expendable space booster but one built in the Ukraine, for commercial satellite launches beginning in the summer of 1998 from ocean-going platforms. Novelli said the U.S. wanted to assure that the sales of the rocket didn't conflict with minimum pricing provisions of the existing trade agreements. The agreements are designed to make certain launchers sold by former Communist countries aren't "dumped" on the market at prices U.S. firms couldn't compete against.