S7 sea launch. Why did a Russian businessman buy the floating cosmodrome “Sea Launch”? What will be launched from Sea Launch
April 1st. website - Natalia Fileva, co-owner of the second largest aviation group in the Russian Federation, S7 AirSpace Corporation, died on Sunday, March 31, as a result of a business jet crash during landing in Frankfurt.
“On March 31, while landing a private plane Epic-LT at Egelsbach Airport (Frankfurt am Main), Natalia Fileva, a shareholder of S7 Airlines, died at the age of 55,” the press service of the S7 company reported.
The circumstances of the tragedy are still unknown.
The plane was completely burned out during the crash.
AIRCRAFT VICTIMS
The plane, according to an informed Interfax source, was flown by pilot Andrei Dikun. Natalia Fileva and her father Valery Karachev were passengers on board the crashed business jet. All three died.
The German police have not yet officially announced the names of those killed.
"According to preliminary data, there was a pilot and two passengers on the plane, presumably Russians. We will not confirm (their identities) until we know for sure," Darmstadt police spokesman Bernd Hochstädter told Interfax.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Hesse police press service said that "the final identification of the bodies will be carried out next week."
“On board the supposedly six-seater plane, in addition to the pilot, there were two more people. According to preliminary data, we are talking about Russian citizens. After the impact, the plane was completely burned,” the statement said.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT
Two more people died in an accident involving a police car in Germany, when a police squad was driving to the crash site of a business jet with Russians on board.
“Many police squads went to the scene of the crash. On the way of one of them, a traffic accident occurred: on federal highway 486, a police car collided head-on with another car,” Darmstadt police spokesman Bernd Hochstädter told Interfax.
According to him, two people were killed and three police officers were injured.
INVESTIGATION
According to an informed Interfax source, the Epic business jet belonged to Globus Airlines, part of S7. According to investigative data obtained by the German police, the plane was flying from France to Egelsbach (a commune in the federal state of Hesse in western Germany).
The German police expect that the investigation into the crash of the plane carrying Russians will continue until the end of next week. “The investigation will go on all night and will most likely last until the end of the week,” Darmstadt police spokesman Bernd Hochstädter told Interfax.
In turn, S7 stated that the investigation of the incident will be carried out “by an international commission in the prescribed manner with the participation of Russian aviation authorities.”
Meanwhile, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) offered assistance to German colleagues in the investigation of the plane crash of the Epic business jet, in which N. Fileva, chairman of the board of directors of S7, died.
“We are ready to send specialists to Germany to participate in the investigation of the plane crash. We have created an operational headquarters. However, so far the German side has not requested help,” the IAC told Interfax on Sunday.
It is expected that the share of Russian participation in the investigation will be determined on Monday at the intergovernmental level.
CONDOLENCES
S7 expressed condolences in connection with the death of N. Fileva in a plane crash.
“The S7 Group holding team expresses its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones. The image of Natalia Valerievna as a bright, caring leader and a wonderful person will forever remain in the memory of the employees; this is an irreparable loss for the entire team,” the company said in a statement.
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, also expressed condolences over the death of N. Fileva.
“We maintained constant contact with Natalia on issues of cooperation with the S7 Space company. Our plans were to create a “sea” version of the Soyuz-5 rocket for Sea Launch. She was a great aviation and astronautics enthusiast, and for all of us her death “a personal tragedy,” the Roscosmos press service quotes D. Rogozin as saying.
“Literally the day before the tragedy, we discussed with Natasha the first test flight of the IL-112V, and she, as a professional in the aviation industry, was very happy about this event. On behalf of all my colleagues at Roscosmos, I express my sincere condolences to her family. We are very sorry.. ", - said D. Rogozin.
The base airport for Siberia Airlines, Domodedovo Airport, also expressed condolences to the family and loved ones of S7 co-owner Natalia Fileva.
“The team at Domodedovo Airport expresses deep condolences to the family and loved ones of Natalia Valerievna, as well as the entire team of the S7 Group holding company. A successful entrepreneur, a charismatic leader and a bright woman - this is how she will remain in our memory and the history of aviation,” Interfax was told in the press - S7 service.
Natalia Fileva’s husband, Vladislav Filev, is also a shareholder of S7. The couple's eldest daughter, Tatyana, holds the post of senior vice president of the group.
S7 includes companies involved in the organization and implementation of air transportation (passenger Siberia and Globus), travel, aircraft maintenance, and training of aviation personnel.
In 2017, S7 Space, part of the group, received a license to carry out space activities - six months after the purchase from RSC Energia of the Sea Launch cosmodrome, a ground base in the port of Long Beach (USA) and the Sea Launch trademark.
In August 2018, it was reported that S7 intends to engage in the production of Victory ultra-light business jets, the developer of which is the American aircraft manufacturing corporation Epic Aircraft - the same one that developed and initially produced the Epic LT, on which Natalia Fileva crashed (in 2009, Epic's assets were sold Chinese AVIC). S7 planned to produce Victory in Stupino, Moscow Region, investments were estimated at about 13 billion rubles, the press service of the regional government reported.
The Sea Launch project was developed in the early 1990s, as plans to deploy commercial satellites went global. The idea was to create a floating rocket and space complex, the unique characteristics of which guarantee satellite operators numerous advantages (including a significant increase in the mass of the payload sent into Orbit) - thanks to spacecraft launches directly from the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean (the zone of the most favorable conditions for launches) and delivery of launch vehicles to the equator by sea.
To create such a unique rocket and space complex, the engineering and technical potential of leading enterprises in the rocket and space industry was involved, such as the American Boeing, the Russian RSC Energia, the Norwegian shipbuilding enterprise Kvaerner (now Aker Solutions), the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and PA " Yuzhmash". It was these enterprises that became the founders of the Sea Launch project, which was officially launched in 1995.
By March 1998, the construction of a special Base Port in the USA (California, Long Beach), as well as the construction of the mobile launch platform “ODYSSEY” and the assembly and command vessel “SEA LAUNCH COMMANDER” were completed.
Until 2014, more than 30 successful launches of spacecraft (including heavy ones) were carried out under the Sea Launch program; more than 150,000 kilograms of payload were sent into Orbit. Within the framework of the project, enormous experience was gained in providing high-quality services throughout the entire cycle of preparatory and launch work, in organizing and conducting all necessary operations with the spacecraft, including delivery, transportation, testing, integration and launch.
For a number of reasons, in 2014, the launch activities of Sea Launch were suspended. Until 2016, negotiations were held on the sale of the project, and measures were taken to resolve legal and material issues. In September of the same year, the S7 group of companies became the owner of the Sea Launch rocket and space complex. The launch activities of the complex will be carried out by S7 Space.
Despite the sale of the project, RSC Energia will retain its participation in Sea Launch, as evidenced by the agreements adopted with S7 Space. It is also known that Roscosmos and Yuzhmash will become S7 Space’s partners in launches from Sea Launch. The project will be managed from Moscow, however, in order to successfully conduct international business, a subsidiary company, S7 Sea Launch Limited, based in the USA, was created.
To solve the problems of resuming the launch activities of the Sea Launch rocket and space complex and its “re-mothballing”, a permanent S7 Space headquarters was organized in the Long Beach Base Port. According to the latest estimates from the monitoring group, the complex will be ready for operation in 2018.
This year, one of the most interesting and revolutionary international space projects of the late 20th century, Sea Launch, passed into private hands. “Popular Mechanics” met with a man who decided to breathe new life into the cosmodrome, and at the same time save unique rocket technologies.
At the end of September, the largest private Russian air carrier S7 Group bought from the Sea Launch group for approximately $160 million the assets of the floating cosmodrome “Sea Launch”: the Sea Launch Commander ship, the Odyssey sea launch platform and a ground complex in the American base port of Long Beach. Some were quick to call the head and co-owner of S7, Vladislav Filev, a short-sighted businessman (Sea Launch has recently brought only gigantic losses), who was fooled by foisting substandard behavior, while others immediately dubbed him the Russian Elon Musk. In fact, both are far from the truth. Partners and friends speak of Vladislav as an entrepreneur who meticulously calculates all risks. So at the meeting with Popular Mechanics, Vladislav Filev did not let go of his pencil for a minute: he drew diagrams, counted and produced a huge array of numbers from memory. And we talked with him about floating cosmodromes, launch vehicles, the future of astronautics - in general, about what we dreamed about as children.
Vladislav Filev has a direct connection to astronautics: after graduating from the Military Engineering Institute named after A.F. Mozhaisky (now the Military Space Academy), from 1985 to 1993 he served in the Strategic Missile Forces as a military engineer. And when asked whether he thinks the acquisition of Sea Launch is a good idea, he answers without hesitation: “For our country this is a brilliant idea. Because we do not have territories for a ground-based spaceport at the equator.”
When launched from the equator, a space rocket can lift more payload into orbit, effectively using the Earth's rotation speed. Sea Launch was launched from the equatorial zone in the Pacific Ocean near Christmas Island. The first commercial launch took place in October 1999, the last (to date) in May 2014.
Ahead of its time
The very appearance of such a project as Sea Launch can be called a miracle. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, our country really wanted to enter the global space launch market. We had enormous experience in launching cargo into orbit, but knew nothing about the functioning of this market. In addition, in the West they didn’t really trust us, and when we mentioned the military load, they stopped talking altogether. On the other hand, the United States was rapidly losing commercial launches to the French company Aerospatiale, which launches satellites using Ariane launch vehicles from the equator. The Americans had neither a suitable launch vehicle nor an equatorial spaceport. When the General Director of the rocket and space concern Energia, Yuri Semenov, proposed the joint implementation of the Sea Launch project to Boeing, it unexpectedly found support at all levels. Incredibly, this fantastic idea united four countries at once: Russia, the USA, Norway and Ukraine, which are now simply impossible to sit at one table. Moreover, each side was irreplaceable.
Ukraine supplied Zenit-3SL, a naval modification of the most advanced launch vehicle at that time, Zenit-2. This complex was created as a weapon of the last day: in an emergency situation, when all satellites were disabled, it could launch rockets every 2-6 hours, quickly restoring the orbital constellation. Zenit was the only one in the world that was capable of automatically performing pre-launch operations and the launch itself - and this is a necessary condition for launching from an offshore platform, because there should be no people there. The most modern control system at that time determined the position of the rocket in space and chose the optimal trajectory. The unique properties can be listed for a long time. Since Zenit was created for military needs, the main developer was the Dnepropetrovsk Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and the manufacturer was the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant, which specialized in combat missiles in the USSR.
The Norwegian company Kvaerner manufactured the naval part - the assembly and command vessel Sea Launch Commander and the unique self-propelled submersible launch platform Odyssey. The platform was rebuilt from the self-propelled oil production platform Ocean Odyssey, which was launched in Japan in 1982. Six years later it burned down in the North Sea and was rebuilt.
RSC Energia made the DM-SL upper stage for Zenit-3SL and was responsible for installing the launch complex on the Odyssey platform at the Vyborg Shipyard (the Zenit ground-based launch complex at Baikonur was taken as the basis). In addition, Russia supplied about 70% of the components to Dnepropetrovsk, including the best first-stage rocket engine at that time, RD-171.
The Boeing company, which resolved all issues of marketing and searching for foreign customers, developed and manufactured the payload nose block with a fairing. Western customers were fearful of leaks of secret technologies. The payload compartment was assembled in the onshore complex building at the port of Long Beach without access to Russian specialists and was hermetically sealed. Only after this was it docked with the launch vehicle, which was delivered by sea to Long Beach from Nikolaev, Ukraine.
We list all this in such detail as to give at least a superficial idea of the unprecedented complexity of international cooperation in the Sea Launch project, the initial costs of which exceeded $3.5 billion. However, the company failed to ensure the profitability of the project, and in 2009 it went bankrupt, almost all the shares were bought by RSC Energia and, after numerous attempts at resuscitation, it sold the project to Vladislav Filev.
No alternative
The main problem of the current Sea Launch is not in marketing, but in the fact that the launch vehicle is produced in Ukraine and cannot be replaced: Zenit-3SL approaches the launch complex like a key to a lock. However, the optimist Filev considers this a success: if Russia and Ukraine had not quarreled, he would not have been allowed anywhere near this complex. For S7 Group, Sea Launch is an entrance ticket to the space business. Entering the topic for such a small amount is a stroke of luck. “I am from the generation that made rockets and huge space systems,” says Vladislav, “and I will be offended if after us only the iPhone remains for our descendants.” He does not consider the purchase of the cosmodrome to be a charity, but views it as a commercial project, listing the arguments. The first is the presence of a ready-made launch complex, very modern even by today’s standards. The second is the existence of a serious backlog. Third, there is no heavy missile in the country. Russia still needs to launch cargo into orbit, especially civilian cargo - the ultra-expensive Angara carries military cargo. Scientific and commercial problems will need to be solved differently.
Regarding Zenit, Vladislav Filev is cautiously optimistic. Yes, Sea Launch is designed strictly for Zenits, and they can only be produced in Dnepropetrovsk. But space issues have always been on the sidelines of politics. For example, no matter how strained relations between the USSR and the USA were, cooperation on space programs never stopped. “Space may turn out to be the very thread that will connect Russia and Ukraine,” Filev smiles, “I hope that it will remain an industry where cooperation is still possible.” Filev’s other argument is the RD-171 family of rocket engines, which are produced in Khimki at NPO Energomash using the most sophisticated Rocket Science technologies. Developed in the late 70s, this engine is still unrivaled, and it is not for nothing that the Americans put the RD-180 and RD-181 engines based on it on their launch vehicles: the United States still cannot develop analogues. Actually, now the States are the only customer of this family: Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, does not have its own carrier for an advanced rocket engine. The Americans periodically threaten to stop purchasing. And if this happens, Russia will need to either close the plant or come to an agreement with Ukraine, Filev believes. And Ukraine also has no alternative.
Filev is skeptical about copying Zenit at Russian enterprises. “Why repeat the same rocket after forty years? - he grins. “It will still be necessary to introduce new elements and solutions that would allow the new rocket to be better, cheaper, and more efficient. I believe that our country is doomed to make rockets. However, you cannot leave the complex and wait for a new rocket to be made, for three reasons. First, we will lose technology. Secondly, people. Third, when we finally make a rocket, the market will be busy. “Zenith is a key element for us that will not allow us to be forced out of the market.”
We need a missile T-34
Vladislav Filev does not like comparisons with Elon Musk and does not share his passion for reusable rockets. We have already gone through this: the side accelerators of Energia were initially designed as reusable, and that same legendary RD-171 was designed for twenty activations. From an economic point of view, none of this works. After returning, a lot of things need to be changed in the engine - both the nozzle and the combustion chamber. All that remains is the high pressure pump. And if you do the math, it's not worth the cost of returning. On the other hand, Filev believes that a disposable launch vehicle can be made much cheaper. The cost of manufacturing a first-class gearbox by the Germans with an accuracy of 20 microns (30 times thinner than a human hair) in a small-scale method is now 50 euros per 1 kg. The cost of a modern aircraft engine, for example CFM56, is $4,000 per 1 kg. A rocket engine is produced at a cost of about $1,000. Vladislav Filev believes that if they are produced not in small batches, but on a production line, then the cost can be reduced to $500 or less. “To do this, you need to make a standard product, produce rockets like pies. - Filev carefully searches for words. — We need a missile T-34. Which no one can win. We don’t need to compete with the Americans in returnability, we need pies with rocket engines.”
Hybrid hypersonic air-breathing engines SABER will use oxygen from the air when flying in the lower atmosphere and liquid oxygen from fuel tanks at altitude. Developers from Reaction Engines Ltd. they plan to install them on Skylon spaceplanes, which will be able to reach orbit at one stage and at a fraction of the cost of today.
Not a plane or a rocket
But it's all real. When we start talking about the future, Filev’s eyes light up. After Wernher von Braun, nothing new has yet been invented, he believes. Even the revolutionary MiG-25 was made in the distant sixties. Today, aircraft have become a little more reliable and more economical, but there has been no breakthrough in performance. In rocket science, everything is even worse: rockets have become neither more economical nor more reliable, but have become significantly more expensive. Almost all modern developments are based on ideas put forward by Wernher von Braun. But there is one experiment in the world that can become revolutionary, destroy the difference between a rocket and an airplane. Almost a quarter of a century ago, three engineers at Rolls-Royce came up with the idea of a fundamentally new Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, SABER, which operates in the first stage as a turbojet engine, using outside air as an oxidizer. In the second stage of flight, it acts as a ramjet. And on the third - like a regular rocket engine, using an internal on-board oxidizer. Having received no support from Rolls-Royce, they founded their own company, Reaction Engines, and began development. As individual superengine technologies were ready, investments in the project also grew: first the British government, then British Aerospace, then, they say, the Pentagon. Until recently, the founders of Reaction Engines said that the first flight is planned for 2029. Now they call it 2024. This aircraft will launch 1300 kg into a circular orbit. This is the possible future.
Why does Russia need the Sea Launch project, and are there any prospects for disposable rockets?
Vladislav Filev, head and co-owner of S7
I am from a generation that made rockets and huge space systems, and I will be offended if our descendants are left with only the iPhone. For our country, Sea Launch is a brilliant idea. Because Russia does not have territories for a ground-based cosmodrome on the equator. I hope that space will remain an industry where international cooperation is possible. Expendable rockets have a future if their cost can be significantly reduced. I believe that our country is doomed to make rockets. We need to produce a standard product, produce rockets like pies. We need a missile T-34, which we will mass produce and which no one will defeat. We don’t need to compete with the Americans in returnability, we need pies with rocket engines.
Reacted to the death of Natalia Fileva, one of the brightest Russian entrepreneurs, co-owner of S7 Airlines.
The Epic-LT plane, carrying Natalia, her father Valery Karachev and the pilot, crashed while landing at Germany's Egelsbach Airport in Frankfurt am Main on March 31.
“A successful entrepreneur, a charismatic leader and a bright woman - this is how she will remain in our memory and the history of aviation,”
“The basis of the business of the S7 Group today is the aviation business, and I have no doubt that the management of the group’s companies is able to maintain the key indicators of the enterprises at a high level in the medium term,” says the executive director of the industry agency AviaPort.
It’s more difficult with new segments, with new projects, which Natalia Fileva, thanks to her enthusiasm, put on their feet, the expert adds. “Segments in which a sustainable business model has not yet been formed may not take off,”
Panteleev adds.
For example, consideration of a new strategy for the S7 group’s space division may be postponed, Sosnova agrees.
However, no one can now even roughly say about the position of the owners: how Fileva’s heirs see the development of the business without her and in what areas they intend to focus their efforts now, probably even they themselves do not know.
Expert Pavel Shipilin spoke about why the Russian company S7 Sea Launch Limited is resuming the purchase of Zenit launch vehicles, which are produced by the Ukrainian Yuzhmash.
On the website of the famous Ukrainian enterprise Yuzhmash, data appeared regarding an order from S7 Sea Launch Limited for the production and supply of rockets. The contract provides for the production of 20 launch vehicles for the Sea Launch and Land Launch programs, which operate for peaceful space exploration. The press service of Yuzhmash noted that the signing of this contract is “a big step in overcoming the deep crisis in which the company has been since 2013.”
The Ukrainian enterprise expressed great gratitude to many foreign companies, but was unable to hide the fact that the counterparties were Russians. It is clear that social networks are buzzing in this regard, and Ukrainian nationalists are threatening to block missile supplies.
S7 Sea Launch Limited is indeed a Russian company that was created in the fall of 2016, when the S7 group signed a contract with the Sea Launch company for the purchase of the Sea Launch rocket and space complex. The subject of the transaction was the Sea Launch Commander ship, the Odyssey platform and ground equipment in the American port of Long Beach.
The Sea Launch project began operating in 1995. Its founders were the Boeing Corporation, the Russian RSC Energia, the Ukrainian design bureaus Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, and the Norwegian enterprise Kvaerner. Several commercial launches of Russian-Ukrainian Zenit launch vehicles were carried out from a floating platform, but in 2009 Sea Launch went bankrupt, and after reorganization, RSC Energia began to play the leading role in the project.
After 2014, Kyiv declared a break in cooperation with Moscow in the rocket and space sector, so the project began to prepare for a change in launch vehicle. At the same time, Russia does not yet have missiles suitable for sea launches. Domestic specialists are working on the Sunkar rocket, but it will only be created in a few years. State funding for the project will begin in 2020. Therefore, now Ukrainian rocket scientists have not missed their chance.
Ukrainian nationalists, of course, are not able to understand the intricacies of rocket science, so they only dream of making life more difficult for the “aggressor country.” At the same time, they do not care that these measures will ultimately harm Ukraine itself. In other words, the rocket and space industry of Square will finally die.
The production of Zenit launch vehicles is a product of cooperation. In particular, the Russian Federation supplies engines for Yuzhmash. Three years ago, cooperation between the Ukrainian enterprise and Roscosmos was terminated, so since then not a single rocket has been built.
It is clear that there is no point in making a serious bet on the Zenit launch vehicle, since the Russian Sunkar is better in functionality and capabilities. This S7 Sea Launch Limited solution is a kind of compromise option. In this case, one should not delude ourselves and talk about “saving the rocket and space industry of Ukraine,” since soon orders from Russia will finally and irrevocably stop.
