SES New Skies Satellite Blows Up During Launch in the Pacific

No Go: NSS-8 satellite shortly before the blast. (Sea Launch photo)

LONG BEACH, Calif., January 30, 2007/Satnews Daily/ — A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket carrying SES New Skies’ NSS-8 communications satellite exploded on Tuesday during launch from an oceangoing platform in the equatorial Pacific.

“There was an explosion as we were lifting off,” said Paula Korn, a spokeswoman for Sea Launch Co. The blast occurred at the scheduled 3:22 p.m. PST (23:22 GMT) launch time destroying both the vehicle and the satellite.

The launch had originally been set as early as Thursday, January 25, but due to off-nominal sea-state conditions at the launch site launch, officials kept resetting the liftoff for the next day until they decided to proceed with the launch on Tuesday.

Observers said the explosion occurred just as the vehicle was about to lift off the pad. Web coverage showed the rocket could be seen falling into the launch pad before a fireball engulfed the launch platform. Sea Launch said all personnel are safe and accounted for.

NSS-8 was to have been the sixth satellite in the SES New Skies fleet. The spacecraft was intended to operate at SES New Skies orbital position of 57° East to replace the existing NS-703 satellite.

Built by Boeing, NSS-8 is a high-powered, state-of-the-art, Ku- and C-band satellite intended to provide coverage of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and Asia. The spacecraft comprises of 92 high-powered C and Ku-band transponders and was to have been the largest and most powerful communications satellite of its kind.

The successful launch of NSS-8 would have allowed for NSS-703 to be re-deployed to the Atlantic Ocean region at 340 degrees East, further boosting the global coverage and connectivity provided by the 40-plus strong fleet of satellites in the SES Group.

SES New Skies said it is currently not in a position to comment on the possible causes of the mission failure and is awaiting the results of the official investigation which is in the process of being installed. Sea Launch said in a statement it will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of the launch anomaly.

The NSS-8 launch failure is not expected to have an impact on existing customers or revenues, New Skies said. It added the launch failure of NSS-8 means that NSS-703 will now stay at 57° East in order to continue to serve existing customers until at least 2009.

SES New Skies has already initiated the construction of NSS-9 for launch in 2009 into the Pacific Ocean Region. NSS-9 is intended to free up NSS-5 which in turn will then be free to relocate to 57° to replace NSS-703.

Sea Launch is a partnership between Boeing Commercial Space Company, providing the payload fairing, analytical and physical spacecraft integration and mission operations; RSC Energia of Moscow, providing the Block DM-SL third stage, launch vehicle integration and mission operations; SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, providing the first two Zenit-3SL stages, launch vehicle integration support and mission operations, and Aker ASA of Oslo, Norway, providing operational services of the Odyssey Launch Platform and assembly and command ship, Sea Launch Commander.

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