Boeing Sues Sea Launch Partners for $350 Million

When it rains, it pours. Less than a day after Sea Launch suffered a momentum-sapping launch failure, founding partner Boeing went after the launch service provider's Russian and Ukranian backers for more than $350 million, Reuters reported Monday (Feb. 4). 

Boeing Co has sued its Russian and Ukrainian partners in satellite launch service Sea Launch, saying they refused to pay it more than $350 million following the joint-venture's bankruptcy filing in 2009.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday (Feb. 1), targeted RSC Energia, a company partially owned by the Russian government, and two Ukrainian state-owned companies, PO Yuzhnoye Mashinostroitelny Zavod and KB Yuzhnoye. Boeing said it partnered with the companies, as well as Norway's Kvaerner Moss Technology, in 1995 to create Sea Launch, which focuses on launching commercial satellites into space.

The U.S. aerospace company said it provided substantial funding for the venture, and the partners agreed that, if it failed, they would reimburse Boeing their share of the funding.