Yousuf Al Sayed, CEO of Thuraya, confirmed reports that his company will keep the launch of the Thuraya-3 satellite with Sea Launch despite delays stemming from a January failure. Thuraya-3 is intended to expand the satellite telephone service into Asia and Australia.

"Thuraya-3 satellite was originally set to be launched with Sea Launch and no decision was taken to do otherwise,” he told Satellite Today. “Launching objects into space is a risky business and failures are possible by any launch provider or satellite manufacturer. The last failure of Sea Launch vehicle lies within this possibility and does not affect its general outstanding reliability. We did consider other launchers seriously in order to protect our plans for Asia-Pacific operations, however recent indications on Sea Launch’s return to flight in fourth quarter [of] 2007 as well as business impact analysis showed that staying with Sea Launch is still a more viable option."

Sea Launch placed Thuraya-1 in orbit in 2000 and Thuraya-2 in 2003.