SpaceX bought two oil rigs last year and is currently converting them into rocket launch sites. This reports, among other things, CNBC and explains that the two platforms should allow the planned giant rocket Starship to take off and land away from inhabited areas.

Elon Musks The company bought the platforms for a total of seven million US dollars from a US company that filed for bankruptcy last year. In the meantime the platforms have been baptized “Deimos” and “Phobos”, the names of the sons of the Greek god of war Ares and of course the two moons of Mars.

A rocket for the colonization of Mars With this purchase, the US company is once again proving how seriously the ambitious plans for the Starship are being taken. Musk had just presented the first prototype 2019 and announced a spaceship that should be reusable very quickly and that could be used up to three times a day or 1000 Can fly times a year. One of these spaceships is supposed to fly 150 tons of cargo into space and 50 tons of cargo to earth can. He described the Starship as “the fastest way to a self-sustaining city on Mars” and also believes travel to other planets is possible. The first manned flights did not take place as planned 2020, but at the beginning of December the prototype SN8 reached more than 10 Kilometers altitude and only exploded when attempting to land.

Last year Elon Musk announced on Twitter that SpaceX “floating, spaceports for super-heavy Wants to build rockets “that will fly to Mars, the moon and around the earth. SpaceX had then also started hiring staff for the construction work, writes CNBC. It is still unclear when the conversion will be completed and when the two platforms will experience their first take-offs and landings. At SpaceX, the next test flight of a Starship prototype is currently pending. SN9 should also reach 10 kilometers altitude, but then, unlike its predecessor, land safely again.

(mho)