St Petersburg
SCOTLAND'S contribution to an ambitious multinational project to launch commercial satellites from a former North Sea oil platform is poised to set sail for its Californian ''home base''.
The Govan-built mother ship, Sea Launch Commander, will leave here next week bound for Long Beach, California.
Installation of its Russian and Ukranian rocket launching system has been completed at the Kanonersky shipyard near this North Russian city and a departure date is now set for June 7.
Meanwhile, the modified North Sea drilling rig - the former Ocean Odyssey which was hit by a devastating fire off Dundee in 1988 - is having the final stages of its Russian and Ukranian rocketry fitted at the Vyborg Russian shipyard near the Finnish border.
The first sea launch is scheduled to take place before the end of 1998 from a site some 1600 miles south of Hawaii and 3000 miles south-west of the Long Beach base.
It is far simpler to launch from the equator as less inclination is required and therefore fewer subsequent corrections while the rocket is en route.
The innovative venture is a collaboration between Boeing in the US which has a 40% share, Anglo-Norwegian shipbuilding group Kvaerner, with a 20% stake, RSC Energia of Moscow (25%) and KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of the Ukraine (15%).
Their aim is a cheaper more reliable system for launching commercial satellites.
Allen B Ashby, Sea Launch president and general manager, commented that the construction phase was complete and the operations phase was about to begin.
''Literally thousands of people in Russia, Ukraine, Norway, Scotland and the US have been working for more than three years to bring Sea Launch to this milestone, making it one of the world's leading examples of international co-operation in space.''
The Sea Launch Commander recently completed final fitting in the Kanonersky shipyard and is loading the first Sea Launch rocket.
Here more than 600 tonnes of electric and mechanical support equipment for mission control were installed in the 650ft long ship, a floating rocket assembly plant and control centre, which was constructed at Kvaerner's Govan yard.
The Odyssey is a self-propelled, semi-submersible launch platform from which satellites will be boosted into orbit.
The mother ship is due to arrive in Long Beach by late July with the Odyssey following about a month later.
To date the project has attracted contracts and options for 28 launches including firm contracts for 18.
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