Odyssey (launch Platform)
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LP ''Odyssey'' is a self-propelled
semi-submersible Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as: *Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport *Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface *Se ...
mobile
spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
launch platform converted from a mobile
drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill wat ...
in 1997. The vessel was used by
Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...
for equatorial
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launches. She works in concert with the assembly and control ship . Her home port is the
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in the United States. In her current form, ''Odyssey'' is long and about wide, with an empty draft displacement of , and a submerged draft displacement of . The vessel has accommodations for 68 crew and launch system personnel, including living, dining, medical and recreation facilities. A large environmentally-controlled hangar stores the rocket during transit, from which the rocket is rolled out and erected prior to fueling and launch. In September 2016 the platform along with other Sea Launch assets was sold to
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, the parent company of
S7 Airlines S7 Airlines, legally JSC Siberia Airlines (russian: АО «Авиакомпания "Сибирь"», "АО Aviakompania Sibir"), is an airline headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, with offices in Moscow. As of 2008, it was Russia's ...
.


History

The platform was completed in 1983 for Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company (ODECO) by
Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI) is an integrated manufacturer of industrial machinery, automatic weaponry, ships, bridges and steel structure, equipment for environmental protection, including recycling, power transmission equipment, plastic molding machines, laser proces ...
. It drilled its first exploratory hole about south of Yakutat for
ARCO ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...
Alaska, Inc. The rig cost about to build during the early eighties oil "boom". During construction the vessel was called ''Ocean Ranger II'', and was renamed ''Ocean Odyssey'' after capsized with all hands lost during a storm off
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
on 15 February 1982. When built, ''Ocean Odyssey'' was classed +A1 +AMS by the
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for unrestricted worldwide ocean service. She was a long, wide, twin-hull design with a propulsion system. The rig's structure was designed to simultaneously withstand winds, waves, and a current. The derrick was fully enclosed with a heated drill floor permitting operations down to . The rig had other advanced extreme-condition features as well. For example, the rig's columns were strengthened to withstand some ice impact and the marine riser had a feature similar to a
cow-catcher A cowcatcher, also known as a pilot, is the device mounted at the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles on the track that might otherwise damage or derail it or the train. In the UK small metal bars called ''life-guards'', ''rail guard ...
to keep floating ice off the marine riser that connected the rig to the well on the ocean bottom.


1988 North Sea gas blowout

On 22 September 1988, ''Ocean Odyssey'' suffered a blowout while operated by ODECO (now
Diamond Offshore Drilling Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is an offshore drilling contractor. The company is headquartered in Katy, Texas, United States, and has major offices in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Scotland, Singapore, and Norway. The company operates 15 drilling ...
) on hire to
ARCO ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...
(now a subsidiary of BP), drilling the 22/30b-3 well on a prospect in the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
. The ultimate direct cause of the incident was a failure of the subsea wellhead equipment after a prolonged period of well control. During the resulting fire the radio operator, Timothy Williams, was killed. He had been ordered from the lifeboats and back to the radio room by the rig's manager, who failed to countermand the order when the rig was evacuated. Survivors were picked up by the rig's emergency standby vessel ''Notts Forest'' (38 rescued) and the nearby anchor handling tug ''British Fulmar'' (28 rescued). Four Sea King helicopters from and a Sea King from
RAF Boulmer Royal Air Force Boulmer or RAF Boulmer is a Royal Air Force station near Alnwick in Northumberland, England, and is home to Aerospace Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) Force Command, Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) Boulmer. The Scho ...
assisted rescue operations and transferred survivors from ''Notts Forest'' and ''British Fulmar'' to the drilling rig ''Sedneth 701''. A
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a retired maritime patrol aircraft developed and operated by the United Kingdom. It was an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first operational jet airliner. It was originally designed ...
provided coordination on scene. The incident was featured in the 1990 STV television series ''Rescue'' episode "Missing".


Launch platform conversion

''Ocean Odyssey'' spent the next several years as a rusting hulk in the docks of
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, Scotland. Her availability prompted
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to establish the
Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...
consortium, for which she was bought in 1993 by
Kværner Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...
Rosenberg of
Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, and renamed LP ''Odyssey''. From late 1995 to May 1997, Kværner extended the length of the platform and added a pair of support columns and additional propulsion systems. The upper deck — the location of the former drill floor — was rebuilt to accommodate the launch pad and launch vehicle service hangar. In May 1997, ''Ocean Odyssey'' arrived at Kværner
Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...
Shipyard for the installation of the launch vehicle equipment itself. By 1999, the vessel was ready for service, and on 27 March 1999, a
Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Des ...
rocket successfully launched a demonstration satellite to a
geostationary transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellite, Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous orbit, geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into ...
. The first commercial launch occurred on 9 October 1999, with the orbiting of the
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1-R satellite.


2007 launch failure

On 30 January 2007, a Zenit-3SL carrying the NSS-8 satellite exploded aboard ''Odyssey'' at liftoff due to a turbopump malfunction. There were no injuries, as the ship had been evacuated for launch operations. Damage to the launch platform was mostly superficial, though a flame deflector was knocked loose from underneath the platform and lost, along with damage to the hangar doors and antennae. The vessel was repaired at a shipyard in Vancouver, British Columbia. ''Odyssey'' returned to service on 15 January 2008, with the successful launch of the
Thuraya 3 Thuraya ( ar, الثريا, Gulf Arabic pron.: ; from the Arabic name for the constellation of the Pleiades, ''Thurayya'') is a United Arab Emirates-based regional mobile-satellite service (MSS) provider. The company operates two geosynchronous ...
satellite.


2013 launch failure

On 1 February 2013, the Zenit-3SL rocket carrying
Intelsat 27 Intelsat 27 was an American communications satellite which was to have been operated by Intelsat. Intended as a replacement for Intelsat 805, it was destroyed after the rocket carrying it to orbit fell into the Pacific Ocean 56 seconds after la ...
suffered a failure after its launch from ''Odyssey'', crashing a short distance from the launch platform. Its first stage engine appeared to shut down around 25 seconds after launch and telemetry from the rocket was lost about 15 seconds later. Telemetry indicated that excessive roll was detected 11 seconds after launch. The guidance system was programmed to shut down the engine, but only after the rocket was safely away from the launch platform. It is believed that a failure in a hydraulic pump that provides power for gimbaling the RD-171 engine was ultimately the cause. The launch platform suffered no damage.


See also

*
List of Zenit launches This is a list of launches made by the Zenit rocket. All launches were conducted from either Site 45 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome or from Sea Launch's Ocean Odyssey offshore launch platform. Launch statistics Rockets from the Zenit family have a ...
* Notable offshore well blowouts


References


External links


''Odyssey'' launch platform
at Sea-Launch.com {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 Semi-submersibles Floating launch vehicle operations platform Sea launch to orbit Spaceports Ships built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Maritime incidents in 1988 Maritime incidents in 2007 ARCO Drilling rigs 1983 ships Emerging technologies