April 18 - On a clear sunny morning, the Odyssey Launch Platform sets sail for the launch site at the equator. The Sea Launch team gathers at the end of the pier for a traditional sendoff to the 70 crewmen and passengers. Loaded with ship fuel, rocket fuel and people fuel, the world's only ocean-going launch platform heads for the Sea Launch buoy, some 1400 miles south of the Big Island of Hawaii.

The hangar structure with cranes and living quarters were installed, as well as machinery for power generation, etc. Finally, the platform returned to Vyborg Shipyard for installation of the launch infrastructure. The Odyssey departed Vyborg on June 22, 1998, traveled through the Suez Canal, and arrived at Sea Launch Home Port in Long Beach, California, October 4, 1998.

The self-propelled Launch Platform is the world's largest semi-submersible structure with a displacement of 46,000 tonnes submerged, and measuring 436 feet long, 220 feet wide, and approximately 200 feet high (when not ballasted).

The music played as the Launch Platform departs is called, "March Slav Farewell" (lyrics by A. Mingalev, music by N. Agapkin). It has been played traditionally at railway stations, ports and bus depots throughout Russia since World War I, to provide a rousing musical send off to countless infantrymen, sailors and other passengers.