Elon Musk’s SpaceX abandons plan to build floating launch pads on the Mississippi Coast
SpaceX has decided to abandon its plans to convert two oil rigs into offshore launch pads just weeks before the rigs were finally set to depart from Pascagoula.
The company purchased the oil rigs in 2020 for $7 million and moved the first, Phobos, to Pascagoula in 2021 before moving the second, Deimos, in 2022.
“We bought them. We sold them. They were not the right platform,” SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference on February 8.
Shotwell said the rigs were not suitable to serve as launch platforms, according to reports.
Deimos was set to depart Feb. 20 to begin retrofitting, while Phobos had a departure date of March 12 for repairs, according to a Port of Pascagoula shipping report.
SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, had plans to convert the rigs, which were named after the moons of Mars, into launch pads for the company’s reusable rockets.
Musk tweeted shortly after the sale that “SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon and hypersonic travel around Earth.”
Offshore Equipment LLC is moving the rig. The company has 30 years of experience in this difficult work of moving rigs, which often have no working power or pumps. It takes a team of eight to move the rigs, the company said, when usually 30 people are involved under normal operating procedures.
The rig is being transported to Turkey to be recycled and made into new steel products. If something goes wrong between Mississippi and Turkey, the company said the crew flies to the nearest airport and charters a helicopter to go to the rig and fix any problems.
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Elon Musk’s SpaceX abandons plan to build floating launch pads on the Mississippi Coast."
