First announced in November 2022, Florida-based Space Perspective has purchased an 89-meter-long (292 feet) vessel named for conversion into what it describes as the primary marine spaceport for human spaceflight. The space tourism company was founded in 2019, selling yet-to-happen high-altitude balloon flights.
Named in honor of the Voyager 1 space probe, the vessel was acquired to permit the corporate to launch and recuperate its spacecraft capsule from anywhere on the earth, starting with pre-approved locations near Florida. The corporate accomplished its first test flight in June 2021, launching from land near Kennedy Space Center. The capsule splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico roughly seven hours later. On that occasion, the capsule was recovered from the water using a chartered industrial vessel, .
Constructing on that first recovery, can have the aptitude to each launch and recuperate the spacecraft in an integrated, flexible solution that may also relocate to avoid bad weather — an issue that always plagues traditional rocket launches and marine capsule recovery operations. Space Perspective has previously stated it expects to be the primary in a fleet of marine spaceports globally.
It’s all true! Coming soon… https://t.co/LzsO4QXyMu
— Space Perspective (@SpacePerspectiv) May 10, 2023
Space Perspective’s latest spaceport vessel began life under the name . Owned and operated by large marine firm Edison Chouest, this company accomplished the same sale of two vessels to SpaceX in 2021, which later became support vessels, and .
is being converted at a Louisiana shipyard and can run on biofuel, a more environmentally friendly option than is traditionally found on industrial vessels of those types. The balloon will launch from to a height of 32 km, then glide for several hours, before dropping the capsule, which is able to splash down within the ocean and be recovered by the ship. Operational support of the ship will likely be provided by marine firm Guice Offshore, an organization that has worked with other industrial space providers including Blue Origin and SpaceX, the latter for nearly a decade.
For recovery, will likely be retro-fitted with an a-frame lifting system to lift the capsule from the ocean, supported by fast boats. This technique could be very much like the Dragon capsule recovery system developed by SpaceX and implemented on its recovery vessels and .
Voyager being prepared for renovations. (Credit: Space Perspective)
These similarities should come as little surprise as Space Perspective’s launch and recovery system development is being led by Ryan Nascimento, former responsible engineer for Dragon recovery development at SpaceX, where he oversaw the development of the 2 SpaceX vessels.
was slated to enter operation at first of 2023 when first announced, but in newer updates this seems to have slipped to later in 2023, ahead of further Spaceship test flights.
will likely be based at Port Canaveral, home to numerous SpaceX vessels and a frequent destination of ULA’s and other miscellaneous space-related operations. Port Canaveral is situated immediately south of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and has been seeing increasing demand from the industrial space industry for using its facilities.
Blue Origin, Relativity Space, and Stoke Space all recently wrote to the port in a joint letter searching for to be sure that they might be given the chance to lease space when it became available, implying that as local employers they ought to be given priority to this land ahead of foreign cargo and cruise ships. Port Canaveral has a really busy cruise and cargo operation, making space limited and invaluable.
SpaceX, who didn’t sign the letter, has grown to keep up seven vessels based at Port Canaveral but was praised by Port Canaveral leadership for being flexible about moving its vessels around to satisfy the needs of others. SpaceX’s increasing launch rate also implies that a lot of its ships are regularly offshore and never taking over invaluable space within the Port. When SpaceX docks its entire fleet of ships, the corporate occupies around 700 m of invaluable space which is a significant slice of the available space.
It is a rare sight to see all of SpaceX’s East Coast recovery fleet together as of late with such a busy launch schedule
Here’s a photograph from this morning from https://t.co/umHTygNufH to capture the scene at Port Canaveral🌞 pic.twitter.com/F3oe1ADWR2
— Gav Cornwell (@SpaceOffshore) May 8, 2023
Blue Origin is thought to have secured land at Port Canaveral to put in a crane for Recent Glenn processing. It’s presumed that the corporate can also be curious about dock space for its future recovery fleet, with similar interest from the opposite firms that signed the letter. Relativity Space, which launches from Cape Canaveral, recently announced plans to land and recuperate its future Terran R rocket downrange on a drone ship.
Port Canaveral’s concern stems from the incontrovertible fact that it’s keen to avoid idle ships spending the vast majority of their time sitting around within the Port, taking over invaluable industrial dock space that may very well be used for other revenue-generating purposes. Port Canaveral suggested in a recent public meeting that these space firms ought to be considering other areas of land around Cape Canaveral to park ships while idle. Space Florida, a development agency of the state, is investigating potential solutions.
