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 *S ...

mobile

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

launch platform converted from a mobile

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, 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 ...

in 1997. The vessel was used by Sea Launch for equatorial

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

launches. She works in concert with the assembly and control ship . Her home port was at the

Port of Long Beach The Port of Long Beach, administered as the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is a container port in the United States, which adjoins Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for US–Asian trade, the port occupies of land wi ...

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 S7 Group, the parent company of S7 Airlines. Since then she has been moved to a port on the east coast of Russia, along with the other ship.

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, defence products, ships, bridges and steel structure, equipment for environmental protection, including recycling, power transmission equipment, plastic molding machines, laser proce ...

. It drilled its first exploratory hole about south of Yakutat for ARCO 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 is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

on 15 February 1982. When built, ''Ocean Odyssey'' was classed +A1 +AMS by the

American Bureau of Shipping The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is an American maritime classification society established in 1862. Its stated mission is to promote the security of life, property, and the natural environment, primarily through the development and verific ...

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 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) on hire to ARCO (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, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. 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 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 Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Hawker Siddeley Nimrod 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

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland. Her availability prompted

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

to establish the Sea Launch consortium, for which she was bought in 1993 by Kværner Rosenberg of

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, 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 (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

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 rocket successfully launched a demonstration satellite to a

geostationary transfer orbit In space mission design, a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical type of geocentric orbit, usually with a perigee as low as low Earth orbit (LEO) and an apogee as high as geostationary orbit ...

. The first commercial launch occurred on 9 October 1999, with the orbiting of the

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

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 satellite.

2013 launch failure

On 1 February 2013, the Zenit-3SL rocket carrying Intelsat 27 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.

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