Sea Launch is the transporter. The owner of the goods decides what is being transported

Trond Andresen Kvaerner

Rock is a broadcast satellite, and so is Roll, and this week one of the pair was due to be launched into space from a floating launch pad in the Pacific Ocean, 2,100 kilometres (1,300 miles) south of Hawaii.

But the launch - which was broadcast over the internet - did not happen, because one of the dishes was faulty.

It was supposed to have been the job of the Boeing-backed consortium Sea Launch to catapult Rock 'n' Roll - the satellites - into space.

Expensive delays

But the company insists that the flop was not its fault.

The launch was called off because its client found a fault with the payload itself only seconds before take-off, said Trond Andresen, spokesman for the Anglo-Norwegian engineering group Kvaerner which is part of the consortium.

In March the rocket ended up in the ocean

"Sea Launch is the transporter. The owner of the goods decides what is being transported," he told BBC News Online.

He added that rather than being an expense for the company, the incident could bring in more money because the satellite owner would have to pay for a re-launch.

That could be expensive.

The cost of launching a satellite is in the range $60-80m, Mr Andresen said, though "the price will not be double since there is a rocket included in the launch contract, and that rocket is still there".

Car radio from space

Sea Launch's client is XM Satellite of Washington, US, which has plans to broadcast 100 subscription stations to special satellite car radios.

XM is one of the major players in what is expected to be a fast-growing satellite radio market in the US, and the company has set up multi-million dollar production studios to create new radio stations.

The digital radio format promises to deliver CD-quality sound - and personalised stock quotes, weather and traffic reports - for a monthly charge.

But first, it needs to get Rock 'n' Roll flying.

New attempt

Sea Launch will reschedule the mission, the company said in a statement.

"We can be ready in two or three days," said Mr Andresen.

And this time, success is crucial, not only for XM.

Sea Launch is one of only a handful commercial rocket launch companies; a young consortium, which includes Russia's Energiya spacecraft builder and Ukraine's Yuzhnoye rocket company, in addition to Boeing and Kvaerner.

So far, it has only launched five of its 60-metre- (200-foot-) tall Zenit-3SL Ukrainian rockets.

One of them was a crash-test dummy, another one made a big splash when its payload - a 2.7 tonne communications satellite costing tens of millions of dollars - plunged into the ocean following a 4,200 km (2,600 miles) flight.

That leaves the consortium with only three commercial launches having gone according to plan.

Successful launches of the Rock 'n' Roll dishes would nearly double the company's success rate.

Innovative approach

After the failed launch in March, Sea Launch President Will Trafton said: "This is a tough business, and failures are an unfortunate part of this industry."

Placing satellites safely into orbit remains a very difficult task and innovation in this area more often begins with failure than success.

Sea Launch's approach is widely recognised as innovative.

By basing the floating launch pad at the equator, the company is able to take advantage of a sling-effect from the Earth's rotation.

This means less energy is needed for a rocket launch, and consequently costs are reduced - or heavier rockets can be launched.

Sea Launch is believed to cost about $9,000 per kilogram, whereas conventional launches cost about $30,000 per kilogram.

And it could become a very lucrative market. Analysts estimate that 1,800 satellites will be launched over the next 15 years.