Sea Launch Commander
Sea Launch Commander at home port in 2004
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Owner: | Sea Launch |
| Port of registry: |
 Liberia
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| Builder: | Kvaerner Govan Ltd |
| Launched: | 1997 |
| Identification: | IMO number: 9133812 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Assembly and Command Ship |
| Tonnage: | 50,023 GT, 10,430 DWT |
| Displacement: | 30,000 t (30,000 long tons; 33,000 short tons) |
| Length: | 203 m (666 ft) |
| Beam: | 32 m (105 ft) |
| Draft: | 8 m (26 ft) |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph), 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) max |
| Range: | 33,000 km (21,000 mi) |
Sea Launch Commander is the command ship for Sea Launch. As of 2013[update], she was registered in Liberia. Her home port is Long Beach, California.
Sea Launch Commander was commissioned by Sea Launch, after Sea Launch was established in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, managed by Boeing with participation from the other shareholders. She was built by Kvaerner Govan Ltd at Govan shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland, and launched in 1997.
In the fall of 1997, the ship sailed for Russia, where special equipment for handling rocket components and for commanding and controlling launches was installed and tested. She arrived in Long Beach, California, on July 13, 1998, after a voyage through the Panama Canal.
The first rocket launch controlled by Sea Launch Commander was in March 1999. The ship originally carried colors representing the majority ownership of Sea Launch by a Ukrainian company.
Following a 2009 bankruptcy of the company,Energia—which already owned 25% of Sea Launch—acquired a controlling interest of 85% in the Sea Launch company and therefore in Sea Launch Commander. As a result, the company planned to begin land-based launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in early 2011, while sea-based launches were to resume in September 2011. The ship currently carries colors representing the majority ownership of Sea Launch by a Russian company.
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Wikipedia