Washington DC – October 9, 1997 – Boeing Sea Launch officials have dedicated their Assembly and Command ship the "Sea Launch Commander" in ceremonies late last month at the platform's facility and rocket equipment construction site in Glasgow, Norway. The ship, which will be used for the first time next fall when a three stage version of the Russian Zenit space booster is launched at sea, will serve as an ocean going "Mission Control" for the Boeing space launches.
The platform will house electronic tracking and instrumentation equipment
receiving radio status from the Zenit and its satellite payloads, which
will be mounted on a nearby self-propelled Launch Platform. Both the
command ship and the launch platform are being constructed by one of
Boeing's partners in the project, Kvaerner Marine of Oslo, Norway.
The construction of the platform began last year at Kvaerner's Govan
shipyard complex, on Glasgow's Clyde River. When used in support of space
launches at sea, the boat will be able to accommodate up to 50 customer
members and a service crew. The floating rocket control center weighs more
than 34,000 tons.
The Zenit's launching platform will carry the rocket and payload stored in
environmentally controlled conditions during its cruise to the launch
point, a location near the earth's equator just off Christmas Island in the
Pacific Ocean. Once at the launch site, the rocket will be rolled out to
its pad atop the platform, fueled, checked out and launched. The platform
will carry storage tanks for the rocket's fuel, as well as transporter and
erector systems in addition to the Zenit itself.
