...the EUTELSAT-70B satellite 24 hours, due to the delayed arrival of the Odyssey platform to the launch site, the company said on Tuesday. The rocket, previously scheduled for a December 2 launch, will lift off at 12:44 Pacific Standard Time (20:44 GMT) on Monday, December 3rd. The company will start launch broadcast approximately 15 minutes before the liftoff.

According to Sea Launch, the new satellite will provide a range of professional services, including government applications, broadband access and video exchanges in Europe, Africa and Central and South-East Asia. Sea Launch carries out rocket launches from floating platform Odyssey at its equatorial launch site in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean. The Sea Launch system offers the most direct and cost-effective route to geostationary orbit for commercial communications satellites, providing diversity of supply, affordability and flexibility for the industry's satellite operators. It uses reliable Ukrainian-built Zenit-3SL carrier rockets with Russian DM boosters to deliver satellites into orbit.

The Sea Launch Odyssey mobile spacecraft launch platform.
© Photo S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia

Sea Launch AG was formed in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, and managed by U.S. Boeing. It resumed operations last year after a 30-month hiatus that saw passage through U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, change of ownership from Boeing to Russia’s Energia space company, and a move from California to Switzerland. The company has conducted more than 30 launches so far. Two of them resulted in failure and one was abortive. (Source: RIA Novosti)