PAYLOAD PROCESSING AT SEA LAUNCH

摘要

Sea Launch is a business venture comprised of four different companies, or partners, each from a different country. Each company brings its own areas of expertise into a single integrated satellite launch service called Sea Launch. The Sea Launch rocket is capable of launching spacecraft weighing 6000 kilograms (13,200 pounds) into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The four partner companies are KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine; RSC Energia of Moscow, Russia; Kvaerner Maritime of Oslo, Norway; and Boeing Commercial Space Company of Seattle, Washington. Sea Launch is an unusual launch concept for several reasons: (1) unique venture relationship, (2) launch commercially from a converted oil-drilling platform, (3) spacecraft is encapsulated and mated to the launch vehicle horizontally, and (4) only countdown in the world performed in two languages. Boeing’s responsibilities to this venture consist of mission integration; payload systems manufacturing, assembly, and test; range operations and worldwide communications; and launch integration. This paper consists of details on Sea Launch’s payload processing techniques. From the early days of deriving the requirements for payload flight hardware and GSE design and manufacture to payload assembly and test philosophies and launch operations, this thesis steps through how we took into account the unique characteristics of the project, such as the maritime aspect, to determine how we were going to test and to what level. In addition, the integration of American systems, documentation standards, and personnel with former Soviet aerospace and Norwegian maritime systems, documentation, and personnel will be explored. After a review of Sea Launch’s development history this paper is organized into the four major components associated with the process of taking a spacecraft from the factory to orbit as it directly affects Boeing payload processing: (1) mission integration, (2) operations requirements and processes definition, (3) payload assembly and test operations at Home Port, and (4) at-sea operations.