The Sea Launch Commander and Odyssey launch platform in the Pacific Ocean during tests last year. Photo: William Hartenstein

The Sea Launch Commander
The Assembly & Command Ship serves as a rocket assembly factory, while providing the mission control facilities and crew and customer accommodations for 240 people during sea-based launches. The ship was built at the Govan Shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland, and Kvaerner Maritime a.s. is the Sea Launch partner. In the fall of 1997, the ship sailed for Russia where special equipment for handling rocket segments and for command and control was installed and tested. It arrived in Long Beach on July 13, 1998. The vessel is 660 feet long, 106 feet wide and has a cruising range of 18,000 nautical miles.

A drawing of the Sea Launch Commander. Photo: Sea Launch

The Odyssey Launch Platform
The launch platform from which the Sea Launch rockets will be launched was once a North Sea oil drilling platform. Odyssey was refurbished at the Rosenberg Shipyard in Stavanger, Norway, and Kvaerner Maritime a.s. is the Sea Launch partner. Sea Launch says the vessel is the largest semi-submersible, self-propelled craft of its kind in the world. The platform provides living accommodations for 68 crew and spacecraft team. Odyssey features a large, environmentally controlled hangar for storage of the rocket during transit, and with mobile transporter/erector equipment that is used to roll out and erect the rocket prior to fueling and liftoff. Special facilities onboard also provide storage of the kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket propellants. Odyssey is 436 feet long and 220 feet wide.

A drawing of the Odyssey launch platform. Photo: Sea Launch