They’re back

On 24 September 2011, a Zenit-SL launch vehicle lifted off from the Odyssey floating platform in the equatorial Pacific to successfully insert Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 7 communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. This was the first commercial launch following the bankruptcy of the Sea Launch program, and the 31st since the start of the program.

Sea Launch’s bankruptcy recovery procedure, announced in June 2009, proved complex and multiple-staged. The funds required for its implementation were provided by Russia’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, whose subsidiary Energia Overseas Limited had come into possession of 95% of Sea Launch shares in late July 2010 under a court ruling. Former major stockholder Boeing retained 3% in the consortium, with a further 2% held by Aker Solutions of Norway, the owner of the launch platform and the assembly and command ship Sea Launch Commander.

The stockholders, however, remain locked in litigation. Boeing is seeking to recover $356 mln in claims from the Russian and Ukrainian partners. Boeing originally applied for reimbursement with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, which said last October that it was in no position to rule on the case. The company appealed in January 2011. Aker Solutions has reimbursed Boeing for its share of the program expenses, but the Ukrainian and Russian partners continue to contest the US company’s claims. The overall unpaid debt, in Boeing’s view, breaks down as follows: $223 mln for Energia (of which sum Boeing is demanding to be paid $112 mln); $89 mln for Ukraine’s Yuzhmash production plant, and $44 mln for the Yuzhnoye design bureau, also of Ukraine.