S7 Group has announced that its aerospace company, S7 Space Transportation System (STS), has obtained a license to perform space operations in the Russian Federation. Its first operation will be the launch of a Zenit rocket later this year.
The Russian aeronautical holding group, which owns S7 Airlines (S7, Novosibirsk), purchased the Sea Launch Group in 2016, which included the acquisition of the Sea Launch Commander vessel with launch support equipment, ground support equipment at the home port facility in Long Beach, California, and the Sea Launch trademark. It also signed an agreement with Energia, the Russian spacecraft components manufacturer. Energia worked with Sea Launch in the production of some of its upper-stage launch systems. However, S7's first launch will be from Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Kazakh-based home of Russia's space program.
With its Roscosmos space license, S7 will be permitted to "participate in international cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes". S7 hopes to carry out up to seventy commercial launches in fifteen years.
