US aircraft manufacturer Boeing filed a motion with the US federal court seeking to block the sale of the multinational Sea Launch spacecraft service by a Russian rocket-space company, space and satellite industry media reported.

On March 30, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Igor Komarov suggested that reports of the launch service's sale by Russian corporation Energia Overseas were "close to the truth" and that paperwork was being processed.

"If Energia succeeds in selling these assets and moving all of the proceeds thereof to Russia, without paying the hundreds of millions of dollars that it owes, it would unquestionably complicate Boeing's collection efforts," the SpaceNews publication reported Tuesday quoting the court filing.

Citing a motion for a preliminary injunction filed on April 2 with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the outlet said Boeing argued that the sale could hinder its ability to collect on a summary judgment issued against Energia last fall of at least $300 million.

A hearing on the motion is reportedly scheduled for May 2 in Los Angeles.

Sea Launch was formed in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, and was managed by US aerospace giant Boeing. The project aimed to use a floating launch site to place rockets on the equator - the best possible location for launch - which gives the rocket additional speed on lift-off thanks to centripetal force caused by Earth's rotation.

Sea Launch resumed operations in 2011 after a 30-month hiatus that saw passage through US Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a change in ownership from Boeing to Energia, and a move of the company headquarters from California to Switzerland.

The US District Court for the Central District of California awarded Boeing $356 million on September 28, 2015, despite Energia's and its Ukrainian counterpart Yuzhnoe's claims that Boeing had given unwritten assurances to its Sea Launch partners that it would not seek reimbursements.

Source: Sputnik News