MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax-AVN) - An emergency that occurred during the final "dry" roll-out of the Zenit launch vehicle to the floating launch pad under the Sea Launch program on Monday caused a delay in the launch which was initially set for April 16, Lea Launch AG said.
A new date will be announced after the launch vehicle has been additionally checked. The EUTELSAT 3B satellite was not damaged, the company said.
The previous launch under the Sea Launch project was carried out on February 1 2013. It was a failure which caused a suspension of Zenit launches.
On April 29 2013 Sea Launch AG released a report on an inquiry into the accident, which said that the failure was due to a shutdown of the Ukrainian-made power plant. No other problems were uncovered, the report said. Following the accident only one Zenit launch was carried out from the Baikonur cosmodrome under the Land Launch project.
Zenit-3SL launches are run by the Sea Launch consortium, formed in 1995. Following reorganization in 2010, a 95% stake went to Energia Overseas Limited (EOL), Energia Space Corporation's subsidiary; 3% to the American Boeing and 2% to Norway's Aker Solutions. The Sea Launch AG is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.
The Zenit-3SL launch vehicle is based on the two-stage carrier rocket Zenit-2, developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Ukraine). The upper stage DM-SL was developed and made by Energia.
The Sea Launch consortium has carried out 35 Zenit-3SL launches from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, 32 of them successful.