Owners of S7 airlines (allegedly) buy Sea Launch space project

Picture: Frank Leuband (under creative commons)

We are living through the start of an exciting era. The borders between space and air travel may get increasingly blurred.

And in this context, it should not surprise anyone that the connections between the space and commercial aviation industry can get very personal.

If these reports are accurate, the owner of S7, Russia's largest private airline, and a member of the Oneworld airline alliance, is the buyer of Sea Launch, an ailing project that was set up in the 1990s by Boeing and other partners from Russian and Ukraine with the aim of launching space rockets from a sea-based platform in the Pacific Ocean.

Not much info is available yet on this deal, other than Sea Launch's Russian partners have sold out their stake in the venture. 

It would be interesting to know whether Mr. Filev aims to emulate Richard Branson, of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic fame, and create an S7 space brand...In the meantime, and maybe to get everyone used to the idea, S7 recently sponsored a music video by group OK Go that became an immediate sensation on the internet, since it was shot in zero gravity conditions.