The two companies demonstrated the ability to launch from a floating platform in US territorial waters; it’s a concept that could help clear congestion at land launch sites. On May 23, Spaceport announced that Evolution Space had launched four sounding rockets from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico on May 22. The launches were part of a proof-of-concept for the ability to launch from a naval platform.

Tom Marotta, CEO and founder of The Spaceport Company, said in a statement, “This demonstration taught a number of lessons that will be incorporated into our next project: building a naval spaceport capable of orbital operations.”

The launches were aimed at improving the procedures necessary to carry out an orbital launch from such a platform, according to the company. This included obtaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Coast Guard, clearing the airspace and waters to ensure safe launch and remote launch of the missile.

The companies do not disclose specific locations of the launches. On May 22, the FAA closed its airspace for “space operations” in a small area of ​​the Gulf of Mexico south of Gulfport, Mississippi, where such airspace closures do not normally occur.

The launches were carried out by Evolution Space, a Mojave, California-based company working on solid-fuel launch vehicles for defense and space applications. The company made its first launch on April 22, crossing the 100-kilometer Karman line from the California desert, reaching a maximum altitude of 124.5 kilometers.

“We are proud and grateful to be a part of what The Spaceport Company is doing,” Steve Geller, CEO and founder of Evolution Space, said in a company statement.

Spaceport plans to develop floating launch platforms based on a ship design called a liftbot. The platform can float to a certain position and then extend its legs to anchor it to the seafloor and lift the platform out of the water.

Launch platforms will not require any land infrastructure and will be easier to develop and operate than traditional land launch sites. This includes facilities such as the Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral and the nearby Kennedy Space Center, which are seeing an increase in launch activity that is straining the range’s infrastructure.

“It’s much easier to build more ships to meet the demand for more launches than it is to look for 100 acres on shore,” Marotta said at a conference in February.

These platforms will be able to place small launch vehicles with payloads of about one ton into low Earth orbit. In February, Marotta said the company is working on a funding round to support work on these platforms, which it says will be helped by both demo launches and vendor partnerships. In April, the company announced a partnership with Vaya Space, a developer of small launch vehicles formerly known as Rocket Crafters, to launch company vehicles as early as 2025.

Floating launch platforms were used on a larger scale, notably by the former multinational Sea Launch, which launched Zenit-3SL missiles from a converted oil rig in the Pacific Ocean at the Equator. SpaceX has also considered using offshore platforms for the Starship vehicle, but in February the company said it was abandoning two oil platforms it planned to convert into launch pads after concluding that they were unsuitable platforms.