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Lifting off from the Odyssey Launch Platform, the Zenit-3SL rocket began its ascent phase of flight. The first stage of the vehicle separated 2:29 minutes after liftoff, and the protective payload fairing was jettisoned 43 seconds later.<\/p>\n
Following its six minute burn, the second stage separated from the Block DM-SL upper stage. The Block DM-SL began a 5:40 minute operation and then shut down for a 37:13 minute coast period. The Block DM-SL burned a second time for 5:51 minutes.<\/p>\n
Following this second burn, and another 9:50 minute coast period, the spacecraft separated from the upper stage over the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n
Click here for other Sea Launch Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/?s=Odyssey<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates
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Saturday\u2019s launch marks a new era for Sea Launch \u2013 after they went out of business two years ago, with their previous launch \u2013 with Italy\u2019s SICRAL 1A \u2013 occurring in April, 2009.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/A318.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
Their demise came just a year after they returned to flight in January, 2007 \u2013 following the major impact of the failed launch which occurred with the NSS-8 communications satellite for SES New Skies, after the vehicle exploded on the launch pad, destroying both the vehicle and satellite. (Over 300mb of exclusive multi-angle video and hi res photos available in L2).<\/p>\nThat initial RTF success came via the launch of the Thuraya 3 telecommunications satellite for the United Arab Emirates \u2013 a year after the NSS-8 failure.<\/p>\n
The Odyssey Launch Platform arrived at the launch site at 22:40 on September 20. The Sea Launch Commander ACS moved to relative launch support position for Payload Unit and Spacecraft testing. The Launch Platform begun ballasting operations and L-2 day operations.<\/p>\n
Built by Astrium, an EADS company, the ATLANTIC BIRD 7 will head to a final geostationary orbit will be located at 7 degrees West Longitude, a key neighbourhood for Eutelsat\u2019s digital broadcasting markets in the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/A620.jpg\" "\\"A6\\"")
Up to 44 Ku band transponders will be connected to a broad high power footprint serving the Middle East and North Africa for Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcasting. A second footprint for North-West Africa, across the Maghreb countries and extending down to the Gulf of Guinea will be connected to a payload of up to 12 Ku-band transponders designed for consumer broadcasting services and equipped to meet high for internet access services.<\/p>\nBased on the Astrium Eurostar E3000 platform, the satellite has a width \u2013 with solar panels deployed \u2013 of 33 meters. It is expected to have a service lifetime of 15 years plus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to be entrusted with this important launch assignment from Eutelsat,\u201d said Kjell Karlsen, President of Sea Launch. \u201cWe have been working very hard during the past months to realign our supply chain under RSC Energia\u2019s leadership and to provide Eutelsat with the visibility and transparency required to witness first-hand our on-schedule performance in the factories.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to returning to launch operations and successfully executing our first mission with Eutelsat in support of their growing orbital infrastructure and expanded capacity. We sincerely appreciate Eutelsat\u2019s continued confidence in Sea Launch, our launch team and our system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Operators at the Hartebeesthoek ground station near Pretoria, South Africa acquired the spacecraft\u2019s first signals from orbit shortly after spacecraft separation. All systems performed nominally throughout the launch mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe offer our sincere congratulations to Eutelsat, and to Astrium for this outstanding success,\u201d said Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG. \u201cWe\u2019re very proud to play a role in Eutelsat\u2019s continued and expanding success. We thank you for your renewed trust and confidence in our system and our team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to thank and congratulate the Sea Launch and Energia Logistics teams, RSC Energia, as well as all of the suppliers and contractors around the world who support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat CEO, added: \u201cThe powerful ATLANTIC BIRD 7 satellite will further consolidate Eutelsat\u2019s resources for vibrant digital broadcasting markets across the Middle East and North Africa. Our thanks go to Sea Launch AG, Energia Logistics and RSC Energia for this precisely-executed launch and their extreme professionalism during this important campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith tonight\u2019s launch successfully completed, we are now fully focused on collaborating with our industrial partner, Astrium, to bring ATLANTIC BIRD 7 into full commercial service next month.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Images via Sea Launch and L2\u2019s Sea Launch Section).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sea Launch have made their long awaited return action on Saturday, with the launch of ATLANTIC BIRD 7 \u2013 a communications satellite. Liftoff was on schedule for the opening of a 57-minute window, at 1:18am PDT (08:18 GMT), from the Odyssey Launch Platform located in the Pacific Ocean. Spacecraft separation and acquisition were both classed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[470,9071],"class_list":["post-40318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-sea-launch","tag-zenit-3sl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}