Six months after CEO Elon Musk revealed that “SpaceX is constructing floating, superheavy-class spaceports” for its next-generation Starship rocket, the corporate has already bought and begun changing no less than two retired oil rigs.
In a rapid-fire sequence of investigations spurred by latest pictures and suspicions printed by photographer Jack Beyer, it was shortly decided that an oil rig mothballed for years in Port of Brownsville and a twin ship in close by Galveston had been bought by “an undisclosed buyer” for ~$7 million in July 2020. Weeks later, proprietor Valaris (previously EnscoRowan) formally filed for chapter, explaining the sale of a number of half-billion-dollar property for scrap costs.
An offshore drilling contractor and proprietor of 1 the most important fleets of oil and gasoline drilling rigs on the planet, ENSCO constructed seven 8500-series deep-water, semi-submersible oil rigs within the late 2000s and early 2010s. ENSCO 8506, the final within the sequence, was constructed for an unbelievable $560 million from 2008 to 2012. Because of the crashing oil and gasoline market, SpaceX is now the proud proprietor of 8500 and 8501 – the primary two ships within the sequence – for a mere $7 million.
It was shortly decided by NASASpaceflight reporter Michael Baylor that shell firm Lone Star Mineral Improvement bought the rigs. Within the tweet’s replies, one other consumer found that the LLC was straight related to SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen, indisputably confirming that SpaceX was the brand new proprietor of each oil rigs.
In its first act as proprietor, SpaceX fittingly renamed the rigs Deimos (8500) and Phobos (8501). Whereas subverting the SpaceX norm of naming rocket touchdown platforms after starships from science fiction creator Iain Banks’ Tradition universe, the moons of Mars are a greater than becoming different given the corporate’s intense deal with constructing a sustainable metropolis on the planet.
The aim of the latest additions to SpaceX’s fleet is each easy and unclear. Whereas the corporate is at present onerous at work constructing out a land-based launch advanced for orbital Starship-Tremendous Heavy launches, huge floating launch and touchdown platforms have additionally featured in SpaceX’s official artist ideas of the rocket for the final a number of years. At first centered on enabling suborbital airline-style Starship flights to and from coastal cities, the place sea-based platforms can be a necessity to keep away from home laws and excessive noise air pollution, Musk finally positioned sea-launch as a viable different or complement to any and all land-based Starship launch operations.
Most just lately, in June 2020, the CEO acknowledged that SpaceX “is constructing floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, Moon, & hypersonic journey round Earth.” Now, with work already clearly underway to transform no less than two oil rigs into Starship launch and touchdown platforms, that idea is much nearer to actuality. It stays to be seen how in depth (and thus costly) the modifications SpaceX must make to the platforms might be nevertheless it’s protected to say that the enterprise is a complete lot extra believable when a dying business’s asset depreciation is so intense {that a} billion {dollars} value of oil rig {hardware} might be purchased for a mere $7 million only a decade after completion.