SpaceX Phobos Reader Tip & Photo – 2nd SpaceX Oil Rig

25 January 2021 by Jennifer sensiba

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In previous articles, we have explained that SpaceX has purchased two offshore oil rigs, with the intention of converting them into floating launch and landing facilities for Starship. We then covered the locations, history and more of the platforms. When I wrote the latter, we knew the ENSCO 8500 (aka Deimos) was in Brownsville Harbor, but we weren’t 100% sure where 8501 / Phobos was. We knew he was in Galveston until recently, but he had probably moved on.

Thanks to our readers, we now know where Phobos is.

A reader, who wants to remain anonymous, spotted the docked platform in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He is currently stationed at the VT Halter Marine facility, at approximately 30.341292, -88.511511. To verify the identity of the platform, one of the readers shared a photo closer to the platform, showing his identity.

What we don’t know is if the rig is passing or if it needs to be worked on further.

Why park it there?

VT Halter is certainly capable of making whatever changes SpaceX would need to make to the platform. It is a subsidiary of an engineering company specializing in shipbuilding. Its former clients include private companies, oil companies and the Ministry of Defense. Notable projects include the upcoming US Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter, lighters for Navy auxiliary personnel, and massive natural gas-fired vessels.

Google Maps has 3D views of the facility, and it shows that its Pascagoula wharf is frequented by oil rigs. It doesn’t advertise the construction of platforms, but a reader familiar with the facility tells us that ships and platforms frequently stop for work, and sometimes just dock to be restocked.

Which brings us to the second possibility here. Phobos might be on his way to another location, possibly Florida, and only stopping for a break in Mississippi. Additionally, it’s possible the rig did some of its work in Mississippi before moving to Florida or Boca Chica to do the rest of the work.

How are these platforms moved?

As we pointed out in a previous article, the ENSCO 8500 series platforms are semi-submersible. They don’t sit on top of a tower or have long legs, but float on top of large pontoons. As you can see from the image our reader provided above, Phobos spent a lot of time sitting deeper in the water. The platform can be raised or lowered by pumping water into or out of the pontoons, and platforms of this type are generally raised to a higher position for movement.

When moving objects along the coast, there is no need to go into the deep waters of the Gulf, with the waves and storms that accompany it. If you zoom in on the coast in Google Maps or Google Earth, you can see the Intracoastal Waterway. The Waterway is a series of man-made canals, inlets, and bays all interconnected, providing a safer route from Boston, Massachusetts to Brownsville, Texas. Phobos was likely pulled by tugboats along this waterway from Galveston to Mississippi, and will likely take the waterway from there to Brownsville or Florida.

Platforms move on their own sometimes, but it’s slow and complicated in most cases. In this case, we know that Phobos was brought to the dock by two tugs and was probably moved along the ICW by the same tugs.

Once in place, the semi-submersibles are “sunk” in part by pumping water into the pontoons. The advantage of sitting deeper in the water is that most of the pontoons are under the waves, which allows the rig to be much more stable. To stay in one place, cables are typically used to attach rigging to anchors placed on the seabed, but they can also stay in place using thrusters or a combination of anchor and thrusters.

And after?

This is still what we know very little about. It’s possible that work could be done in Mississippi to transform it from an oil rig to a rocket launch / landing facility, or some / all of this work could be taking place elsewhere.

The next most likely places he’ll go are Brownsville or Florida. Work on 8500 / Deimos is already underway at Brownsville, but SpaceX has near-shore facilities at Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Previous work on Starship in Florida has not gone well and has been scrapped, but the company may want a second facility to work on floating spaceports.

Given SpaceX’s plans to launch and land spaceships in many places around the world, it will ultimately need a lot more floating spaceports. Earth-to-Earth missions for transport will likely take people from big cities to other big cities, and big cities just don’t have the real estate to build safe launch facilities where people won’t be disturbed by. the sound and bright light of spear. The only viable alternative in most cases would be to install a floating facility on the nearby ocean or on a large lake if there is one nearby.

This is exactly what SpaceX shows in an earlier version of a Starship promo video. Passengers first board a boat for a floating launch and landing facility, located a good distance from New York City. Then they launch into space and can reach most other cities in under 30 minutes.

There are only seven of the ENSCO 8500 series, at least half of which are still used for oil production. To achieve its goals, the business will need hundreds or thousands of floating facilities. Using existing floating platforms is probably SpaceX’s way to enter a new industry without the learning curve of building floating spaceports from scratch.

SpaceX can get started with building its floating facilities in-house, but it may be easier to work with existing shipbuilders to move to mass production. We won’t know for a while, and SpaceX may still be deciding how best to approach future production.

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Keywords: mississippi, Phobos, SpaceX, spaceship