LONG BEACH, Calif.-Boeing Commercial Space Co. received a Technical Assistance Agreement from the U.S. Department of State enabling the Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board to begin assessing the data and understanding the root cause of the March 12 launch failure.
Liftoff of the third flight of Sea Launch, carrying an ICO Global Communications F-1 communications satellite, occurred during the first launch attempt from the equatorial launch site. According to a release from Sea Launch, an anomaly occurred during the second stage operation, prior to the spacecraft reaching orbital velocity.
The Failure Review Oversight Board will review and verify the results of each investigation from Sea Launch partners to determine the cause of the failure.
“We will make every effort to study the flight and the problem in a thorough, methodical and disciplined manner,” said Jim Maser, chief engineer for Sea Launch and chair of the oversight board. “Our board will have representatives from our customer companies as well as from the satellite and aerospace industries. We must have objective evidence that the root cause has been determined and corrected, with knowledgeable and confident concurrence from this team before we can return to flight.”
The assessment is expected to take several weeks.
