PARIS -- Two years after filing for bankruptcy, Sea Launch is gearing up for a pair of commercial satellite missions later this year from a mobile ocean-based launch pad and the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

File photo of a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket erected atop the Odyssey launch platform. Credit: Sea Launch
 
The launches are planned for the autumn with the Intelsat 18 communications satellite for the Asia-Pacific region and Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 7 spacecraft to cover North Africa and the Middle East.

Intelsat 18 will blast off as soon as September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Zenit 3SLB rocket. Sea Launch netted the Intelsat 18 contract from Space International Services, or SIS, a Russian firm that took over managing the Zenit's Land Launch operations from Baikonur after Sea Launch filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Sea Launch announced the contract change in a June 2 press release.

Intelsat switched its satellite launch to the management of Sea Launch after SIS had trouble procuring rocket hardware in time for a liftoff this year. Sea Launch, with the majority ownership of Russian rocket-builder Energia, says it will support a launch opportunity for Intelsat 18 in the second half of 2011.

"We are most pleased that Intelsat came to Sea Launch to provide the launch solution for [Intelsat 18]," said Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch. "This decision reflects our customer's continued confidence in our renewed capabilities to provide quality launch services on schedule and with maximum flexibility."

Sea Launch is also awaiting the arrival of fresh Zenit 3SL rocket components, which departed the Port of Oktyabrsky in Russia on May 31. The hardware is expected in mid-July at Sea Launch's home port in Long Beach, Calif., according to Peter Stier, a company spokesperson.

The Zenit 3SL's two lower stages are manufactured by Yuzhmash of Ukraine and a Block DM upper stage from Energia, which is the principal owner of the reorganized Sea Launch company and also oversees the overall Zenit supply chain.

File photo of a Land Launch Zenit rocket blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos
 
The shipment includes the Zenit's two core stages for the company's next sea-based launch. Two Block DM upper stages are also aboard to be used on two different missions, Stier said.

The launch of Atlantic Bird 7 is scheduled between September and December, according to Vanessa O'Connor, a spokesperson for Eutelsat. O'Connor said Sea Launch is the "nominal" provider for Atlantic Bird 7's launch service.

Atlantic Bird 7 will launch from Sea Launch's Odyssey mobile launch pad, a convered North Sea oil platform that steams from California to a spot in the Pacific Ocean along the equator at 154 degrees west longitude.

Sea Launch has ten Zenit vehicles on order, enough to cover the company's launch manifest through the end of 2013, Karlsen said.

"We are very pleased with having achieved yet another important milestone towards the resumption of launch operations later this year," Karlsen said in a statement.

After a 16-month bankruptcy process, Sea Launch reorganized under majority Russian ownership and emerged as a new firm in October. Energia also took over control of Sea Launch's home port operations in California, which were previously managed by Boeing Co.

Sea Launch conducted 30 missions from its Odyssey launch platform between 1999 and 2009. Two of those flights failed to reach orbit.

Stier said Sea Launch has nine missions on contract.