Sea Launch a success; payload; Blok DM to reenter

Allen Thomson (thomsona@flash.net)
Sat, 27 Mar 1999 21:18:11 -0600

Saturday, March 27, 1999
Update for 9:33 p.m. EST
T+plus 1 hour, 3 minutes. Spacecraft separation. The inaugural flight of Sea
Launch has deployed the simulation satellite cargo into a geostationary
transfer orbit around the Earth. This was the major objective today - to
demonstrate the capability for Sea Launch to delivered commercial satellites
into space.

The DemoSat spacecraft, built by Boeing Commercial Space Company, was
designed to simulate the properties and mass of Galaxy 11, a PanAmSat
communications satellite originally scheduled to fly aboard this first Sea
Launch mission. Although just a mockup, DemoSat does feature more than 130
sensors to gather data on the environments future Sea Launch payloads will
face.

The last significant events today will be conducted over the next couple of
hours to vent and safe the Block DM-SL upper stage. The spent stage will
also be positioned for reentry into the atmosphere.



Nothing on OIG yet.