In article ,
(Henry Spencer) wrote:

No. The first Sea Launch flight carried a mass dummy.

Ah, well, just add another "I Was Corrected by Henry" t-shirt to the
order . . . :-p

They would have
*liked* to carry a revenue payload, and at first they had one, Panamsat's
Galaxy 11.

I was probably remembering that when I posted this morning, along with
the independent recollection of the successful first launch.

In fact, Panamsat was so confident in Boeing that they also
put Galaxy 10 on the first Delta III... which was lost. And then a Zenit
failed (with a quarter of the whole Globalstar constellation aboard).

I do remember THAT, though.

At
which point, Panamsat and its insurers went into a Sea Launch planning
meeting carrying long pointy sticks :-) :-) :-), and after the screaming
was over, Galaxy 11 was rebooked on Ariane and Sea Launch gritted its
teeth and launched the Galaxy 11 mass dummy they'd been using for
facilities checkout.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
Columbia Loss FAQ:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html