Author Topic: LIVE: Sea Launch - Atlantic Bird 7 - September 24, 2011 (Read 79919 times)

anik · « **on:** 07/26/2011 06:08 am »

Sea Launch has opened page for new mission:
http://www.sea-launch.com/current_launch.htm

The last launch date I heard is September 18.

russianhalo117 · « **Reply #1 on:** 07/30/2011 07:03 pm »

Press Release from Sea Launch

SEA LAUNCH ON TRACK TO LOFT EUTELSAT’S ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7
BERN, Switzerland, July 15, 2011 – Eutelsat has assigned the launch of its ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 communications satellite to Sea Launch. The satellite will be lofted into an optimized geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) on board the reliable Zenit 3SL. The launch will occur from Sea Launch’s Odyssey launch platform after its transit to the equatorial launch site located at 154 degrees West longitude, in international waters of the Pacific Ocean. The sea based transport vessel carrying the launch vehicle designated for ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 departed the port at Oktyabrsky, Ukraine on 31 May 2011 and arrived at Sea Launch’s Home Port facility in Long Beach, California on 13 July 2011. The ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 mission is planned for launch in September 2011.

Built by Astrium, an EADS company, the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 satellite will weigh approximately 4,600 kilograms (10,141 lbs.) at launch. Its final geostationary orbit will be located at 7 degrees West Longitude, a key neighbourhood for Eutelsat’s digital broadcasting markets in the Middle East and North Africa.

"We are delighted to be entrusted with this important launch assignment from Eutelsat,” said Kjell Karlsen, President of Sea Launch. “We have been working very hard during the past months to realign our supply chain under RSC Energia’s leadership and to provide Eutelsat with the visibility and transparency required to witness first-hand our on-schedule performance in the factories. We look forward to returning to launch operations and successfully executing our first mission with Eutelsat in support of their growing orbital infrastructure and expanded capacity. We sincerely appreciate Eutelsat’s continued confidence in Sea Launch, our launch team and our system."

About Sea Launch AG
Sea Launch AG, headquartered in Bern, Switzerland, provides corporate sales, marketing, contracting and management for launch services based on the highly-proven and reliable Zenit-3SL launch system. The Sea Launch system offers the most direct and cost-effective route to geostationary orbit for commercial communications satellites and has flown 30 missions, providing diversity of supply, affordability and flexibility for the industry's satellite operators. For more information, please visit the Sea Launch website at: www.sea-launch.com.

About Eutelsat Communications
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity commercialised on 27 satellites that provide coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues. At March 31, 2011, Eutelsat’s satellites were broadcasting more than 3,800 television channels to over 200 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Group’s satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet Service Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets. Eutelsat's broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates access to high speed Internet services through teleports in France and Italy that serve enterprises, local communities, government agencies and aid organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ 700 commercial, technical and operational employees from 28 countries. www.eutelsat.com.

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Contact:
Peter Stier, +1 562 499 4726, [email protected]

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Mission Update

Current Mission - ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7

Sea Launch is preparing for the launch of the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 communications satellite in September 2011. Built by Astrium, an EADS company, the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 satellite will weigh approximately 4,600 kilograms (10,141 lbs.) at launch. Its final geostationary orbit will be located at 7 degrees West Longitude, a key neighbourhood for Eutelsat's digital broadcasting markets in the Middle East and North Africa.

Launch Coverage

Sea Launch will produce live coverage of the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 mission, and stream video of the event on this website. Launch broadcast will begin approximately 15 minutes before scheduled liftoff. Please click http://www.sea-launch.com/current_index_webcast.html to view our live mission coverage.

Mission Highlights

Zenit-3SL hardware being offloaded at Home Port: http://www.sea-launch.com/current_launch.htm#mission_album

Payload

ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 will be based on Astrium’s Eurostar 3000 platform, optimized for high-growth broadcasting markets, two beams will give superior coverage across the Middle East, including Gulf states, as well as North Africa and North-West Africa.

Up to 44 Ku band transponders will be connected to a broad high power footprint serving the Middle East and North Africa for Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcasting.
A second footprint for North-West Africa, across the Maghreb countries and extending down to the Gulf of Guinea will be connected to a payload of up to 12 Ku-band transponders designed for consumer broadcasting services and equipped to meet high for internet access services.
ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 vital statistics:

Platform: Astrium Eurostar E3000
Width with solar panels deployed 33 m
Mass at launch 4.6 tones
Power at end-of-life 12 kW
Operational lifetime 15 + years
Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defense space systems and services.

Mission Profile

From its ocean-based launch site located directly on the equator at 154 degrees West Longitude, a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle will lift the 4,600 kilograms (10,141 lbs.) ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 spacecraft into an optimized geosynchronous transfer orbit on its way to its final geostationary orbit at 7 degrees West longitude.

Lifting off from the Odyssey Launch Platform, the Zenit-3SL rocket will begin its ascent phase of flight. The first stage of the vehicle will separate 2:29 minutes after liftoff, and the protective payload fairing will be jettisoned 43 seconds later. Following its 6 minute burn, the second stage will separate from the Block DM-SL upper stage. The Block DM-SL will begin a 5:40 minute operation and then shut down for a 37:13 minute coast period. The Block DM-SL will burn a second time for 5:51 minutes. Following this second burn, and another 9:50 minute coast period, the spacecraft will separate from the upper stage over the Indian Ocean.

Launch Timeline

Time   Event
L= 0:00:00   Liftoff
L+ 0:02:29   Stage 1 Separation
L+ 0:03:12   Payload Fairing Jettison
L+ 0:08:29   Stage 2 Separation
L+ 0:08:39   Block DM 1st Burn Ignition
L+ 0:51:31   Block DM 2nd Burn Ignition
L+ 1:07:12   Spacecraft Separation

Satori · « **Reply #2 on:** 07/31/2011 11:25 am »

There is already a thread for this launch on Commercial Space Flight General, so I'm merging the two threads there.

Phillip Clark · « **Reply #3 on:** 07/31/2011 03:49 pm »

It will be good to see Sea Launch back doing launches again.

edkyle99 · « **Reply #4 on:** 07/31/2011 04:31 pm »

Quote from: Satori on 07/31/2011 11:25 am

There is already a thread for this launch on Commercial Space Flight General, so I'm merging the two threads there.

Shouldn't this be under "Russian" (slash Ukrainian) launches? That's where Proton launches for ILS are now covered. Like ILS, Sea Launch is now a majority Russian-owned entity.

- Ed Kyle

D_Dom · « **Reply #5 on:** 08/03/2011 12:50 am »

I have always considered this to be a commercial effort. International partners indeed add bonus points but the challenge is making a profit

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #6 on:** 08/03/2011 01:01 am »

Quote from: edkyle99 on 07/31/2011 04:31 pm

Quote from: Satori on 07/31/2011 11:25 am
There is already a thread for this launch on Commercial Space Flight General, so I'm merging the two threads there.

Shouldn't this be under "Russian" (slash Ukrainian) launches? That's where Proton launches for ILS are now covered. Like ILS, Sea Launch is now a majority Russian-owned entity.

- Ed Kyle

I'm going to be adding some sections for unmanned missions/spacecraft this week/weekend - led by a big feature on the Voyagers - so I might even add a Sea Launch section, given they don't have a natural home (Russian, Commercial) as we've covered a lot of their launches, and of course the failure.

Really glad these guys are back. Hope the Sea Launch Jazz webcast music returns!

anik · « **Reply #7 on:** 08/08/2011 10:04 am »

I was told the launch is planned on September 22-25.

Eric Hedman · « **Reply #8 on:** 08/11/2011 06:22 pm »

I'm curious if anyone knows if Sea Launch does anything to chase away from their platform any major sea life such as whales, dolphins, sharks, etc. before they launch? Is the rocket launched far enough above the water to not be a threat to such animals? Or are they launching far enough away from any migration routes that it is not a threat to any species?

kevin-rf · « **Reply #9 on:** 08/11/2011 06:27 pm »

Who knows, but they are in the middle of a very deep ocean. Marine life is few and far between. It's not like that shuttle which knocked out a pelican out of the air...

Eric Hedman · « **Reply #10 on:** 08/11/2011 07:05 pm »

Quote from: kevin-rf on 08/11/2011 06:27 pm

Who knows, but they are in the middle of a very deep ocean. Marine life is few and far between. It's not like that shuttle which knocked out a pelican out of the air...

Does anyone know if after that launch if they did anything to scare birds away for the remaining launches? I would imagine that a large bird could have damaged the foam insulation on the ET.

Nicolas PILLET · « **Reply #11 on:** 08/11/2011 07:28 pm »

Quote from: anik on 08/08/2011 10:04 am

I was told the launch is planned on September 22-25.

Last week, the head of KB Youzhnoye told me in person that it was actually planned for 22nd september !

AnalogMan · « **Reply #12 on:** 08/11/2011 09:44 pm »

Quote from: Nicolas PILLET on 08/11/2011 07:28 pm

Quote from: anik on 08/08/2011 10:04 am
I was told the launch is planned on September 22-25.

Last week, the head of KB Youzhnoye told me in person that it was actually planned for 22nd september !

I have also seen 22 September from another source (but no launch window times yet).

anik · « **Reply #13 on:** 08/30/2011 04:55 pm »

I was told the fuelling of DM-SL upper stage has begun yesterday. It should last three days. The assembly of Zenit-3SL rocket will begin after that.

clsspace · « **Reply #14 on:** 08/31/2011 12:33 pm »

Quote from: Eric Hedman on 08/11/2011 06:22 pm

I'm curious if anyone knows if Sea Launch does anything to chase away from their platform any major sea life such as whales, dolphins, sharks, etc. before they launch? Is the rocket launched far enough above the water to not be a threat to such animals? Or are they launching far enough away from any migration routes that it is not a threat to any species?

Prior to launch, the Sea Launch helicopter(among other things)looks for sealife around the platform. Never seen any whales or dolphins at the launch site, but have seen rays, sharks and other fish. Real danger zone is below the flame bucket (if you don't count NSS8 failure). Since no one is on the platform hard to say if it has ever toasted a shark or not. Evidence would be gone by the time anyone could check.