Everything about Ocean Odyssey totally explained
The
Ocean Odyssey is a self-propelled,
semi-submersible drilling rig which was rebuilt as a mobile
spacecraft launch platform and is currently used by
Sea Launch for equatorial
Pacific Ocean launches. It works in concert with the
Sea Launch Commander assembly and control ship. Its home port is the
Port of Long Beach in the
United States.
In its current form, the
Odyssey is long and about wide, with an empty draft displacement of 30,000 tons, and a submerged draft displacement of 50,600 tons. It 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, and then rolls it out and erects it prior to fueling and launch.
History
The platform was built in 1982 for the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (
ODECO) by
Sumitomo Heavy Industries. It drilled its first exploratory hole about south of
Yakutat for
ARCO Alaska, Inc. The rig cost about $110 million to build during the early eighties oil "boom" — a pricey bet given declining construction costs and lease rates just a couple of years later.
During construction
Ocean Odyssey was called
Ocean Ranger II. However, it was renamed to the
Ocean Odyssey after the
Ocean Ranger capsized during a storm off
Newfoundland on
February 15,
1982.
When built Ocean Odyssey was classed +A1 +AMS by the
American Bureau of Shipping for unrestricted worldwide ocean service. It 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 −35 °C.
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.
On
22 September 1988 it suffered a blowout while under hire to
ARCO, drilling the 22/30b-3 well on a prospect in the
North Sea. The ultimate direct cause of the incident was a failure of the subsea wellhead equipment after a prolonged period of kick 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.
The
Odyssey spent the next several years as a rusting hulk looming over
Dundee's docks. Its availability prompted
Boeing to establish the Sea Launch consortium, for which it was bought by
Kværner Rosenberg of
Stavanger,
Norway, and rebuilt in 1995-1997.
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, the
Ocean Odyssey arrived at Kværner
Vyborg Shipyard for the installation of the launch vehicle equipment itself.
January 30 2007 launch failure
On
January 30 2007, a
Zenit rocket carrying the
NSS-8 satellite failed to launch and exploded aboard the
Ocean Odyssey. There were no injuries.
On
February 3,
2007, photographs of the damage were posted on internet forums. The launch platform damage is mostly superficial, though blast deflectors underneath the launch platform were knocked loose and were lost when they fell into the sea.
Odyssey returned to service with the successful launch on
January 15,
2008 of the
Thuraya 3 satellite.
Image:SeaLaunch OdysseyAfterExplosion.jpg|Ocean Odyssey platform after Jan 30, 2007 launch failure. Scorching from explosion is visible over aft, sides, and front of the platform. No major structural damage is visible.
Image:SeaLaunch OceanOdysseyDeck.jpg|Deck of Ocean Odyssey - hangar doors knocked off their tracks but apparently not seriously damaged.
Image:SeaLaunch Underplatform.jpg|Underneath launch platform. Blast deflectors knocked loose and fell into sea.
Image:Sea launch 1.jpg|Platform at graving dock, Esquimalt BC, June 17, 2007 with names painted out.
References in popular culture
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ocean Odyssey'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://ocean_odyssey.totallyexplained.com">Ocean Odyssey Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
