-- On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:23:22 Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 12:17:32PM +0000, Ken Brown wrote:
There have been commercial launches from Kenya, and from offshore platforms in the Indian Ocean.
Right. I recall the company is SeaLaunch (I wrote about them once, a Boeing venture, I believe) and uses an old oil platform they towed there from the Atlantic.
Yes, Boeing is a partner, as is Kraevner a Norweigan company that supplied a refurbished semisubmersible drilling rig. They use Russian Zenit rockets which are loaded on the platform in Long Beach then the launch platform and command and support ships move to equatorial waters for the launch. And you're absolutely right, SeaLand can't support that sort of operation, nor does it provide an equatorial launch site. Jim
SeaLand is not exactly quite as capable.
-Declan
Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com