Ocean based launch article from The Space Review

[pmn1]

The unfortunate loss of a Sea Launch vehicle and its NSS-8 spacecraft payload at liftoff on January 30th underscores one benefit of launching rockets at sea: if something goes wrong at low altitude, there are no damaged buildings, utilities, roads, trucks, and cars, as opposed to certain land-based launch failures that have caused considerable harm to the surrounding area, like this Delta 2 failure a decade ago. Damage from the Sea Launch failure is confined to the platform itself and appears to be limited. The Pacific Ocean has served as a self-healing launch site that now supports return of the launch platform to its home base for refurbishment.<br /><br />Rest of article at<br /><br />http://www.thespacereview.com/article/808/1 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[publiusr]

Truax lives on.<br />