Posted: Tue, Jan 30, 2007, 8:29 PM ET (0129 GMT)
A Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket exploded upon liftoff late Tuesday, destroying the launch vehicle and its communications satellite payload. The Zenit 3SL was scheduled to launch the NSS-8 satellite for SES New Skies at 6:22 pm EST (2322 GMT) Tuesday from the Odyssey Launch Platform on the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. However, the rocket exploded immediately upon liftoff, enveloping the launch platform in a fireball. The explosion destroyed the rocket and satellite, but the status of the launch platform is now known. In a brief press release Sea Launch said that it experienced "an anomaly today during launch operations", but provided no other details other than it would create a failure review board to investigate the accident. The launch was the first of six planned by Sea Launch this year. The failure is the second for Sea Launch since it began operations in 1999; its third launch suffered a second-stage failure. The NSS-8 satellite, a Boeing 702 model weighing nearly 6,000 kilograms, would have provided C- and Ku-band communications services from 57 degrees east in GEO.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now launch status center
•  NasaSpaceFlight.com article
•  Sea Launch press release