State-owned enterprise Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash, Dnipro) expect that the program on commercial launches using the Zenit launch vehicle under the Sea Launch international project will be resumed and the enterprise is waiting for a new order to produce the Zenit launch vehicle early 2018.
“In April 2017, a contract was signed between S7 Sea Launch Limited and Pivdenmash for the manufacture of twelve Zenit launch vehicles, which already has an order for the production of two products with a delivery period in 2018. An additional order for three products is expected in February 2018,” the company said on its website.
As reported, the Sea Launch consortium for commercial launches of satellites from a launch site in the Pacific Ocean was established in 1995. Sea Launch International Consortium used to launch Zenit-3SL rockets from the floating platform deployed in the equatorial Pacific. Following reorganization in 2010, Energia Overseas Limited (EOL), a subsidiary of Energia Corporation, acquired a 95% stake in the company, while U.S. Boeing received 3% and Norway’s Aker Solutions got 2%.
Sea Launch Group members (subsidiaries and lower-tier subsidiaries of Energia Corporation) and S7 Group entered into a contract for the purchase of the Sea Launch Commander ship, the Odyssey launch platform and gear, and the Sea Launch trademark on September 27 during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2016 in Guadalajara (Mexico).
According to Pivdenmash, the enterprise and S7 Sea Launch Limited entered into a contract in April 2017 to build 12 Zenit launch vehicles for space exploration programs conducted under the Sea Launch and Land Launch projects.
