Interior Department requests information on offshore launch options
TOKYO - An office of the U.S. Department of the Interior is seeking information on concepts for performing offshore orbital launches, part of a broader effort by the federal government to reduce congestion at existing spaceports.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, published a request for information July 7 seeking details from companies and organizations interested in conducting space launch activity from the outer continental shelf, offshore regions within the exclusive economic zone of the United States.
That region extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) offshore and is managed by the Interior Department for use in oil and gas drilling and for wind farms. The department also issues leases for "other authorized marine-related purposes" that could extend to offshore launch facilities.
"BOEM is considering whether these concepts may encompass the repurposing of existing offshore infrastructure," such as former oil and gas rigs, the agency stated in the RFI, "as well as the potential development of new, purpose-built offshore facilities dedicated to commercial space launches, space reentry, and related activities."
The agency asked for information about potential concepts for offshore launch and reentry facilities, including proposed locations and technical aspects, as well as environmental and legal considerations.
"BOEM is issuing this RFI to improve its understanding of these considerations and to inform potential future interagency coordination, policy development, or guidance before any policy positions or decisions are finalized," it stated in the RFI.
There has been growing interest in recent years in using offshore locations as launch sites, primarily for smaller vehicles, to relieve congestion at launch sites such as Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg in California. SpaceX already uses coastal waters for Dragon spacecraft recoveries, and other companies are also considering reentries in those regions.
"The Outer Continental Shelf presents a significant opportunity to support the future of America's space economy. Offshore launch, reentry 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," Matt Giacona, acting director of BOEM, said in a statement. "This request for information is an important first step in assessing how offshore development could support the next era of U.S. space leadership."
One company that has been working on offshore launch concepts is Seagate Space. The company has designed a purpose-built floating launch platform and has collaboration agreements with Firefly Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.
Sean Fortener, co-founder and chief operating officer of Seagate Space, told SpaceNews that he saw the RFI as a positive development and that his company would respond to it.
"From our standpoint, the discussion has shifted from whether offshore launch is possible to how the United States develops a safe, scalable and commercially sustainable offshore launch capability," he said. "We also hope this is the start of a broader conversation across the federal government."
The RFI comes as the White House has been working on an updated national space transportation policy. That policy is expected to include provisions on spaceport infrastructure.
"I can share that the forthcoming national space transportation policy will incentivize private-sector partners to co-invest in launch infrastructure," Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), said at the Space Symposium conference in April.
"We've been doing a lot of deep dives into America's spaceport infrastructure," said Charlie Powell, assistant director for space and spectrum at OSTP, at the AIAA ASCEND conference in May. That has included weighing the benefits of efficiency, with launch infrastructure concentrated in a few locations, against those of redundancy from multiple launch locations. "It depends on what you're optimizing for."
"We believe the future of offshore launch is a network of mobile spaceports that complements existing land-based infrastructure by expanding capacity, increasing operational flexibility and supporting a broad range of commercial and government missions," Fortener said.
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