National Geographic: Destination Space Page #5

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of wining and dining.

Jungle boat cruise, anyone?

After a day of sightseeing, it's time

for the real business at hand-placing

a communications satellite worth

hundreds of millions of dollars

at just the right spot 22,000 miles

above the equator.

The night of the launch,

clients assemble at a safe distance

where they can relax

and enjoy the show.

Bienvenue a Kourou...

Greetings everybody wherever you

may be and welcome to Kourou,

the home of Ariane for tonight's live

broadcast of Ariane Spaceflight #126...

launching... for Panam Sat... this evening...

first launch of the new year.

The show's gonna be a good one.

We hope you'll stay with us.

The ground crew is under pressure to

maintain its long string of successes.

And I have to say it's

a very, very exciting business

when you have once a month

this huge thing flying into space

and all these people working on it.

Another successful launch.

And so the party begins in earnest.

Being on the equator

for launching satellites

is such a tremendous advantage

that our competitors are desperately

trying to find an equatorial site.

To compete with Arianespace,

a secretive rival will journey to one

of the most remote places on earth.

Using extraordinary gear

that belongs in a James Bond movie,

they will create their own

equatorial launch site

in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

In Long Beach, California a company

called Sea Launch

has assembled a dream team

of scientists and mariners.

Their mission:
to launch satellites

from a platform at sea.

Mission Director Steve Thelin marvels

at the talent Sea Launch has assembled.

I mean, who ever thought

I'd be out here

launching Western-style spacecraft

on a Russian rocket

on a Norwegian platform

out in the middle of the Pacific.

I mean, this is really cool.

Sea Launch uses a rocket

originally designed to fire nuclear

warheads at the United States.

Today, it carries a payload

more in tune with the times-

a telecommunications satellite.

Sea Launch will journey

across the Pacific Ocean,

to a spot on the equator

Two vessels will make the expedition.

One is an oil platform, converted

into a self-propelled launch pad.

The other-a specially built command

ship that will carry 200 Russian,

Ukrainian and American engineers and

scientists on the three-week trip.

Relations are good on

this international team.

The Russians are just

such professionals.

It's just an honor to be working with them.

Some of the best rocket scientists

in the world, basically.

It's neat to see the past come

forward to the future of space.

The state-of-the-art

mission command center

is actually two control rooms in one.

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