SpaceX reusing oil rigs from bankrupt Valaris as floating launch pads



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As with almost every other project Elon Musk is involved in, his SpaceX is taking a new path with its rocket launches. Various media reported on Tuesday that the space exploration company planned to launch rockets from a pair of oil rigs recently purchased from Valaris, the powerful offshore drilling contractor who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last August.

The pair, now named Deimos and Phobos (apparently after the two moons of Mars), will be used as launch pads and other purposes for the spaceship planned by the exploration company, a two-story vehicle currently underway. of tests.

Last June, several weeks before the platforms were purchased for $ 3.5 million each by a SpaceX affiliate, Musk tweeted that “SpaceX is building super-heavy-class floating spaceports for Mars, the moon and hypersonic voyages around the Earth ”.

A rocket traveling in space.

Image source: Getty Images.

Musk often provides few details in his tweets, so it’s unclear what kinds of facilities the rigs might be equipped with, other than launch pads.

Starship has to be a massive rocket that will transport goods and passengers into space if the company’s ambitions are realized.

Both platforms are located in the Port of Brownsville, Texas, near the Starship Development Facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

The last unmanned spacecraft prototype launched in December, with the usual interest that comes with almost anything Musk related. That was good news / bad launch news: As the prototype reached a new height for Starships of around 40,000 feet and appeared to achieve several of its goals, it exploded on impact when it attempted a landing.

The space race of private companies is becoming more and more interesting. Sunday, Virgin Orbit – a sister company of SpaceX-like Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE) – put his LauncherOne rocket into orbit. The machine placed 10 satellites during its flight.



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