SL Aerospace

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. The first rocket was launched in March 1999.

On March 17, 2006, it was announced that Jim Maser, the President and General Manager of Sea Launch, would leave the company to join SpaceX as President and Chief Operating Officer.

In June 2009, the provider of the Sea Launch service, Sea Launch Co. LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Sea Launch asserted that it would "continue to maintain all normal business operations after the filing for reorganization." On August 6, 2010, Energia, which already owned 25% of Sea Launch, announced it planned to acquire a controlling interest of 85% in the company. As a result, the company planned to begin land-based launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in early 2011, while sea-based launches to be resumed in September 2011.

Sea Launch emerged from bankruptcy effective October 27, 2010. Energia Overseas Limited, a Russian corporation, is majority owner of the reorganized entity, with Boeing and other American companies retaining minority shares.

In 2013, Boeing sued RSC Energia, PO Yuzhnoye and KB Yuzhnoye. According to Boeing the companies refused to pay more than $350 million following the joint venture's bankruptcy filing in 2009.

In mid-2014, following the 2014 Russian military invasion in Ukraine and the subsequent unrest in the eastern part of the country, there were a number of Russian media reports that indicated Sea Launch may be planning to inactivate the Odyssey launch platform. The company formally denied those reports in June 2014, indicating it is continuing to buy Zenit rockets from Ukraine, and is still promoting its launch services to the international market, even in August 2014. However, in August 2014, Sea Launch conducted a reduction of their staff and removed from operating status both the Commander and Odyssey vessels in order to reduce operating costs during a period where they have no launches scheduled until late 2015.

In July 2015, industry experts stated that the Chinese government was considering the purchase of the Sea Launch command ship and launch platform assets, but this was not confirmed by either company or Chinese government officials.

In September 2015, Boeing won a court judgement against the Russian and Ukrainian partners within Sea Launch. The decision set up a court trial planned for November 2015 where Boeing would argue that it was not properly reimbursed for US$356 million of expenses incurred while operating the Sea Launch launch system. This litigation was decided in favor of Boeing on May 12, 2016.

Ownership and business

Sea Launch was founded by four companies from four countries, which shared the original ownership of offshore Cayman Islands-registered Sea Launch. Ship "Sea Launch" registered Monrovia after reorganising from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, a majority share of the company was acquired by Russian interests.

The project was helped by Hughes Space and Communications, which in 1995 signed the first contract for 10 launches and 10 options, valued at $1 billion, and Space Systems/Loral, which then signed a five-launch contract.

Total cost of the project has been reported at $583 million in 1996. Chase Manhattan arranged about $400 million in loans in 1996. Loans were later guaranteed against political instability in Russia and Ukraine through 2012 by the World Bank (up to $175 million, of these up to $100 million in Russia and up to $75 million in Ukraine) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (up to $65 million).

Sea Launch has a reciprocal agreement with Arianespace and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries through the Launch Services Alliance, providing assurance in case either company's system is not able to launch a payload for reasons of reliability, capacity, backlog, or otherwise. This was used for the first time in 2004 when Arianespace's Ariane 5 had to reschedule a group of launches for reliability reasons.

Concerns and investigations

During project development in 1998 Boeing was fined US$10 million by the United States Department of State for technical violations of the Arms Export Control Act in handling of missile technology while dealing with its foreign Sea Launch partners. This is the largest civil penalty of its kind, although it could have been as much as US$102 million. The Sea Launch project was suspended for two months during the investigation.

The Department of State found that between January 1994 and January 1999 Boing illegally exported "defense articles" and "defense services", although no national security breaches were determined. The violations were uncovered by Boeing's internal investigation.

At about the same time United States Customs Service attempted to block Sea Launch from bringing Zenit-3SL rockets (classified as missiles) into California for assembly without a munitions import licence. The matter was settled in the company's favour.

Also in 1998, 16 member states of the South Pacific Forum issued a communiqué asking the United States to suspend the project indefinitely until and unless their environmental concerns are remedied. It was mostly criticized by the island nation of Kiribati.

The project was criticized in 1997 by International Transport Workers' Federation (ITWF) for registering its ocean vessels in Liberia. In May 1999 Sea Launch reached an agreement with the ITWF, which allows crew members to use ITWF inspectors.

In Russia, since 2014, a criminal investigation has been ongoing against the former president of RSC Energia, Vitaly Lopota. Investigators accuse him of illegally repaying Sea Launch’s debts and purchasing its shares to the detriment of the corporation’s core activities in 2010-2013. Lopota does not admit guilt, and the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has already twice rejected charges against him. In November 2023, the Investigative Committee again brought charges, this time reducing the amount from 9 billion rubles to 4.2 billion rubles.