Posted: Wed, Nov 28, 2007, 7:38 AM ET (1238 GMT)
The two Sea Launch vessels are returning to home port after unusually poor ocean conditions prevented them from carrying out their first launch since early this year. Sea Launch, a multinational venture, had hopes to launch the Thuraya-3 satellite this month from its floating launch platform on the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. However, once arriving at the launch site on November 10, ocean currents up to twice as strong as normal along with high winds prevented the vessels from maintaining their launch positions, When conditions failed to abate, Sea Launch decided Tuesday to return to home port in Long Beach, California, to prepare for another launch attempt at another, unspecified date. This is the first time a launch campaign has been scrubbed because of weather conditions. The launch was to be the first for Sea Launch since a January launch failure, when debris in the Zenit-3SL's first stage engine caused it to shut down moments after liftoff.

Related Links:

•  NASA SpaceFlight.com article
•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  AP article
•  Sea Launch press release