Spaceage goes to sea

the world's first base for launching satellites at sea is being constructed at Long Beach in California, us. Work began early in August on the first ships which would launch rockets safely and cheaply on the ocean. Long Beach will act as the headquarters and a base port from which a pair of ships will set sail to launch satellites in the Pacific ocean, 1,000 miles south-east of Hawaii. The us $500 million-Sea Launch project has been put together by a consortium of aerospace and shipping companies. It is led by Boeing of us and includes the Norwegian shipbuilder Kvaerner and two Russian satellite specialists rsc -Energia and Yuzhnoye.

Under the scheme, an assembly and command ship