Sea Launch base port could be relocated from U.S. to Vietnam's Cam Ranh - source
MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Participants in the Sea Launch project could move its base port from Long Beach in the United States to Cam Ranh in Vietnam, where a Russian naval base was earlier located, a source in the Russian space rocket industry told Interfax-AVN.
"This prospect has been discussed at the very top," he said.
However, the management of the project is in no haste to consider this idea for security reasons. "The route of the Odyssey launch platform and of the command post their way to the equator where launches will be carried out, will lie across regions where pirates attacks are common, the source said.
Another alternative is to relocate the base port to South Korea, he said. "The South Korean cosmodrome Naro is located in a very convenient harbor, where the Sea Launch base could very well be accommodated," the source said.
"As Russian and South Korean specialists have a record of joint cooperation projects (the Naro launch pad was built by Russian specialists and Russia is making the first stage for a joint carrier rocket) talks would be appropriate with South Korean partners on cooperation under the Sea Launch international project," the source said.
