Die Regierung will verlassene Bohrinseln in Raketenabschussrampen verwandeln | Die Regierung möchte neue Startplätze errichten, um einer wachsenden Industrie gerecht zu werden.
https://gizmodo.com/the-government-wants-to-turn-abandoned-oil-rigs-into-rocket-launch-pads-2000784186
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>Hundreds of offshore oil rigs have neared the end of their lives, but they remain perched high above the surface of oceans while the wells beneath them have run dry. Now, the government has proposed a plan to repurpose the offshore rigs and use them to launch rockets to space.
>The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) [issued](https://www.boem.gov/newsroom/press-releases/boem-initiates-first-step-explore-potential-outer-continental-shelf-space) a notice on Tuesday, revealing that it was considering the use of the Outer Continental Shelf for offshore space activities. The request for information explores the potential use of existing infrastructure like oil and gas drilling platforms for launch, re-entry, and recovery of commercial rockets.
>The idea would help resolve a shortage of space launch pads that can barely keep up with an expanding industry, but it could have worrying effects on the ocean.
>The recent request for information is in line with the White House’s December 2025 executive order, titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” which is aimed at boosting investment and advancing policies in order for the private space industry to grow.
>As such, BOEM suggests utilizing the approximately 3.2 billion acres under federal jurisdiction in the Outer Continental Shelf, a region that extends 200 nautical miles offshore from U.S. coastlines.
>“The Outer Continental Shelf presents a significant opportunity to support the future of America’s space economy,” Matt Giacona, acting director of BOEM, said in a statement. “Offshore launch, re-entry, and recovery infrastructure could expand operational flexibility, increase capacity, reduce constraints on growing launch demand, and strengthen the nation’s commercial and national security space capabilities.”
>BOEM is seeking input on how to use the submerged land and existing offshore facilities in the Outer Continental Shelf for space launch activities, requesting comments from commercial space companies and other interested parties. The bureau did not specify a certain project but more so just floated the idea around.
Why is the sudden craze for rocket launch. Looks like mining the space for old satellites and boosters might be a good venture.
SpaceX once purchased 2 oil rigs for this purpose, to launch Starships, but they later sold them.
I would have thought that a rocket launch platform vs an oil drilling platform would be sufficiently specialized that converting one into the other would be impractical, even though they clearly would have a lot of overlap in requirements.
Seems like an unnecessarily pointless complication and therefore risk. 🤷♂️
Its not a bad idea, it’s really dependent on the orbits though. Also the cost to retrofit vs new construction.
Looks like they’re setting up future Enclave bases
Trying to find an engineering focused article about the launch impact to a structure that wasn’t built for it. Just seeing the effects on the rocket itself or the pad that’s on solid ground. Is it minimal or would there be a vibration issue?
The launch pad part is almost the easy headline. The ugly part is probably corrosion, range safety, evacuation zones, storms, insurance, and whatever decommissioning mess the rig already had before anyone bolted a rocket to it
I just want to point out that permanent oil rig structures act as massive artificial reefs.
They are already doing an important job of wildlife preservation.
Repurposing existing offshore platforms sounds clever, but I’d want to see a full lifecycle comparison first. Is converting an old oil rig actually less environmentally damaging than decommissioning it and building a new launch site from scratch?
I could see them as eastward landing pads in the gulf for Texas launches of the 1st stage.
„The Government.“
Maybe we could be more specific? There are a lot of Governments in this world.
I’m wondering where this whole „The plan, however, could also have terrible consequences on the ocean“ argument is coming from, besides the simple desire for some contrarian to inject their viewpoint into the conversation.
Right now we launch rockets from coastal launch sites, and many of them drop their spent stages into the ocean on the way up. So how exactly is this different?
And NASA has always loved to brag about how much of the KSC land area (which is dotted with launch sites) is a nature preserve, so simply launching rockets in an area can’t possibly be enough to completely destroy the ecosystem for miles.
If anything, it probably makes it easier to keep the area around launch sites safe.
The “Government” doesn’t own these properties, they still belong to the oil companies. Some are just shut-in not abandoned as they aren’t profitable so there would need to be a LOT of work done before they could be repurposed. You would also need to look at the structural integrity after they have been sitting in salt water for perhaps decades without any maintenance. It’s a dumb idea just like most others coming from “Government”.
They’re just trying to dump the cost of removal/maintenance to somebody else. Same shit happening in AK with the Cook Inlet.
This sounds like it’s more about offloading the responsibility of properly dealing with these rigs from the companies that own them.
They should just reef these platforms. Most abandoned offshore facilities will never be suitable for rocket launches, if any. They aren’t homogenous flat sheets of steel, they are complex multi level engineered structures designed not only for drilling but production, housing men and storing material.
Source: 23 years in the oil and gas industry.
What kind of weight can they support? What’s the impact of launch?
Seems like some hard questions when using a platform that was not designed to bear the impact of launch
Launching out at sea is obviously a good idea. The further away from populations, the better.
Honestly not a terrible idea.
I apologise if this is a daft question but wouldn’t it be prohibitively expensive to clear the rig of anything flammable before use? Surely oil and/or gas has encroached into every nook and cranny of that structure?
Now this is the kind of news I want to read in 2026.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[BO](/r/Space/comments/1uvc2t8/stub/oxawjy3 „Last usage“)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
|[KSC](/r/Space/comments/1uvc2t8/stub/oxa59ro „Last usage“)|Kennedy Space Center, Florida|
|[NOTAM](/r/Space/comments/1uvc2t8/stub/oxawjy3 „Last usage“)|[Notice to Air Missions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM) of flight hazards|
|[RUD](/r/Space/comments/1uvc2t8/stub/oxawjy3 „Last usage“)|Rapid Unplanned Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unintended Disassembly|
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hear me out…a functioning oil rig platform with a rocket launch platform on top of it!
**pros:** you got all the fuel you’ll ever need, technically movable, no noise issues
**cons:** big bada boom if something goes wrong