SpaceX is going big with plans for ocean-going landing platforms. They've bought two sea-going drilling rigs and are repurposing them for use as landing platforms for the Super Heavy booster. Considering that the booster will generate about twice the thrust of the Saturn V rocker used to launch the Apollo moon missions, having the launch platform well offshore seems like a prudent idea.
Both rigs have been officially renamed Deimos (formerly ENSCO/Valaris 8500) and Phobos (formerly ENSCO/Valaris 8501), and are now owned by Lone Star Mineral Development LLC. Lone Star was incorporated in June 2020, just before the two rigs were purchased, and a principal of the company is Bret Johnsen, who is also the CFO and President of the Strategic Acquisitions Group at SpaceX.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had tweeted that “SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon, & hypersonic travel around Earth” the same month that Lone Star was incorporated. It appears that Lone Star Mineral Development LLC is a subsidiary of SpaceX.
I we are lucky, we'll see a test flight of the Super Heavy booster later this year.
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