Floating cosmodrome nears completion

Excerpts from report by Russian Centre TV on 10th November

[Presenter] Workers at the Vyborg shipyard are completing construction of a unique international floating cosmodrome.

[Correspondent] The new cosmodrome, which is even now being finished at the Vyborg shipyard, is unique. There has never been anything like it in the history of world space exploration.

It is the first mobile cosmodrome, which will be able to launch rockets from literally any point on earth. The idea is simple and brilliant. Until recently, the floating cosmodrome was a Norwegian oil platform...

The colossal structure is supposed to leave the Gulf of Finland in March 1998 and set course for the Pacific Ocean. The first launch is planned for September. A communications satellite will be put into orbit.

The floating cosmodrome, which has been named Sea Launch, is even more unique in that it is the world's first private cosmodrome, which major international corporations are involved in building.

In particular, the firm Boeing is acting as the main supplier of technology; the Norwegian company Kvaerner is responsible for the entire marine part; and Russia and Ukraine are working on the launch vehicles. The American side will most likely own the cosmodrome. However, Russia should reap huge commercial profits as well.

The Sea Launch cosmodrome will drop anchor somewhere on the equator, from where it is most convenient and cheapest to launch satellites into near-earth orbits.

The cosmodrome's crew will be selected in Russia. People will leave the platform before the launch and move to the control ship...

From the point of view of commercial launches, Sea Launch is far more convenient than Plesetsk [Russia] and even Baikonur [Kazakhstan].

This is what attracts the Americans, and in particular the owner of the Microsoft corporation, Bill Gates. It is supposed that he is the project's main sponsor.

The fact is that the world's richest man is developing the Teledisc [phonetic] global space project, which will allow the Internet's possibilities to be multiplied many times.

Gates needs 300 communications satellites and a cosmodrome for this.

Considering that Russia is involved in both, our space-rocket corporations could do quite well out of this. It only remains to wait a little bit longer.

Source: Centre TV (Moscow) in Russian 1055 gmt 10 Nov 97

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.