The history of the Sea Launch project is rather instructive. It appeared at a time when Russia's cosmonautics, short of funds, was hit by a painful crisis and the chiefs of enterprises in the space-rocket industry made enormous efforts to save their personnel from bankruptcy.

Sea Launch appeared due to the enthusiasm of Yuri Semyonov, general designer of the Energia Space Rocket Corporation. As neither Energia, nor its partners had the money to finance the project, half of its shares went to Boeing, a quarter went to Norway, which provided an old oil platform, and the rest went to companies in Russia and Ukraine.

So, the Zenith system, the chief provider in the project, appeared to be the last in the line to get its share of the profits. Of course, the expenses to transform the platform into a launch pad were borne by the Western partners. But that was a one-time investment, while the profits gained from launches remains for years and even decades.

Sea Launch definitely helped many Russian enterprises survive. But it took the bread out of Russia's mouth, intentionally or not, by receiving orders for launches that normally would have gone to the Baikonur or Plesetsk spaceports and became a rival of the Russian Proton carrier rocket.

Previously, delivering a payload to orbit by Proton was estimated, on average, at $70 million, whereas today the heavy Russian rocket flies into space at a price slightly exceeding its primary cost.

Bad habits can spread and today the Russian Puskoviye Uslugi (Launch Services) company is negotiating with the Italian Space Agency (ISA) about the possibility of launching a Russian converted Start-1 carrier rocket from the Italian floating platform San Marco. It is located in the equatorial zone near Kenya's shores, 2 degrees from the equator. The Launch Services company is prepared to modernize the platform and adapt its carrier rocket for launches from it.

What is the Start-1 carrier rocket? Its three lower stages have been adapted from the decommissioned Topol ballistic missile. Its other basic elements, including the booster and the upper stage, are manufactured specially for the carrier.

Its launching unit -- modified transportation and launching elements of the Topol missile -- is an easily transportable and deployable ground installation requiring no special preparation for a launch position. About a minute and a half before the launching time, a container with the rocket is put in a vertical position, after which the rocket is fired. When it reaches the altitude of 30 meters, the first stage engine is ignited.

The comparatively small size of the rocket carrier, which is simple to use, mobile and can be ready for a launch during an unlimited period of time, are the indisputable merits of Start. The cost of orbiting a payload by it, is $8 million to $8.5 million. Of the six launches it has performed, four were commercial, placing satellites in orbit for foreign customers. For these launches the company created a ground infrastructure practically from scratch in keeping with the latest requirements of the market for launching space vehicles. All the launches were made from Russian spaceports: two from Plesetsk and four from Svobodny. The latter has a better geographic location, as it is closer to the equator.

At present Launching Services is getting ready to launch a Start-1 carrying an Israeli EROS-B satellite. It will be the second orbiting of Israeli space vehicle launched by a Russian carrier rocket. The high accuracy of the first launch made it possible for the satellite to function five instead of earlier planned three years.

If the results of the EROS-B launch are successful, the company may sign yet another contract with Israel for three or four more launches. There are good prospects for signing contracts with a number of other countries.

Does it mean that it is simpler to launch the Start from land, and not to spend money on preparations for sea launches? Doubtfully. In this case the hopes for having tens and even hundreds of launches a year will hardly be justified. There has never been a case when economic calculations for future space projects would not differ greatly from actual costs, which are always much higher.

Incidentally, a possibility of launches by a Start carrier rocket from the Woomer spaceport in Australia was considered even prior to San Marco launches. The only advantage of sea launches from these spaceports is that their geographic location makes it possible to use the force of the Earth's rotation for increasing the mass of the payload to be delivered to orbit, and nothing more.

But in this case the major part of the launch cost will go to the owners of the spaceports, and delivering a carrier rocket to the launching site, covering thousands of miles, would cost a pretty penny. Will the Russian partners, who again play the major part in this new space project (as in the case of Sea Launch), find themselves at the end of the line when it comes to collecting its portion of the profit?

(Yuri Zaitsev is an expert with Russia's Space Research Institute. This article is reprinted with the permission of the RIA Novosti news agency.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited)

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