SpaceX's Starship offshore platforms—''Deimos'' and ''Phobos''—are former deepwater oil drilling rigs. In January 2021,

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

began modifying them to support launch and landing of their next-generation launch vehicle,

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...

. Both platforms are part of the Ensco 8500 Series Semi Submersible-type.

History

CEO Elon Musk first showed offshore launch and landing platforms for

in a 2017 animation of the Earth-to-Earth passenger-carrying use case. More recently, Musk clarified in June 2020 that offshore platforms would be used both for launches into space, post-launch landings, and for the more long-term Earth-to-Earth transportation. In July 2020, Lone Star Mineral Development LLC, a subsidiary of SpaceX, bought two semi-submersible

drilling rigs A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill wat ...

from Valaris plc for each. They were renamed ''Deimos'' and ''Phobos'' after the two moons of Mars. The drilling platforms had previously been named ENSCO/Valaris 8500 and 8501, respectively, and were nearly identical as built and when purchased by SpaceX. In January 2021, ''Phobos'' was moved from the

Port of Galveston The Port of Galveston is the port of the city of Galveston, Texas. It was established by a proclamation issued by the Congress of Mexico on October 17, 1825, while the land known today as Texas was still part of Mexico. The Port of Galveston is ...

to Pascagoula, Mississippi to begin refit of the rig for Starship operations by removal of the oil rig equipment, a planned six-month project. As of July 2021 the rig has been cleared of the bulk of the old equipment on its deck. , refit is also underway on ''Deimos'' at the Port of Brownsville. In February 2021, Musk stated that one of the platforms may be partially operational by the end of 2021, and that in order to be transported to the platforms Starships would fly out to sea and land on the platform. In February 2021, Musk stated that the platforms would eventually be used for landing and launch operations in 2022. In February 2022, Musk indicated that one of the two platforms would have a launch tower installed by the end of the year.

Characteristics

As refit began in 2021, both vessels had a main deck dimension of by . The platforms were designed to operate in ocean depths as great as when previously configured as drilling rigs with equipment that needed to reach the ocean floor. As drilling rigs, the platforms had living quarters for 150 people. Each of the oil rigs are equipped with two Seatrax S90 cranes, which matches SpaceX's job listings.

References

{{SpaceX SpaceX maritime vessels Semi-submersibles Maritime vessels related to spaceflight SpaceX Starship Floating launch vehicle operations platform

History

Characteristics

See also

References