The ambitious German floating space port project – 10/23/2023 – Science

Data made available by satellites is becoming increasingly relevant for many sectors of the economy, such as autonomous car driving and digital industrial production. More accurate information and analysis can increase production and logistics efficiency.

And it is in this context that the international race for space has gained new dimensions, especially through the private sector: companies like SpaceX, with its huge fleet of satellites and rockets, have become threatening competitors for established space nations.

Germany, in the midst of this, wants to improve its position in this race, with the construction of a new space port. But it is not a spaceport similar to Cape Canaveral, in the United States, or Baikonur, in Kazakhstan. The plan is for a floating launch base in the North Sea, that is, a special ship with a platform for launching rockets.

The first releases

The German Offshore Spaceport Alliance (Gosa), the alliance behind the spaceport, has already started the countdown to the inauguration of the mobile platform: the first launch is scheduled for April 2024. It is a rocket from the Dutch company T- Minus.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI, its acronym in German) announced during a space congress in Berlin that the launch point will be in the so-called Entenschnabel (duck’s bill), the most remote corner of the German exclusive economic zone, around 350 kilometers away. from the coast.

Each launch will be accompanied by a control ship and a new, multifunctional Mission Control Center (from where aerospace vehicle flights are managed) in the German city of Bremen — this is because the Gosa consortium includes the space company OHB, based in Bremen. . The ship’s home port will be the coastal city of Bremerhaven.

In the future, European microlaunchers — mini rockets with payloads of up to 1 ton — will be launched from the mobile platform in the North Sea, destined for near-Earth orbits. In a two-week test phase, it is planned to launch up to four rockets with a maximum length of seven meters and a flight altitude of up to 50 kilometers.

The initiative behind the spaceport

BDI launched the initiative — called NewSpace — at its first space conference four years ago. The growing commercialization of space travel was seen as a great opportunity for Germany as an industrialized country — and thus the idea of ​​a mobile space port was born.

Behind the plans is a market worth billions: the NewSpace initiative could reduce the high costs of launch vehicles. According to a new study by BDI and strategic consultancy Roland Berger, the space applications market will grow 7.4% per year, reaching 1.25 trillion euros by 2040.

Why does Germany need a spaceport?

“In a growing number of industries, it is true that if you are not at the forefront in space, you will not be a technology leader on Earth,” says BDI President Siegfried Russwurm.

The platform aims to meet the growing market demand for small commercial satellites. Germany needs sovereign access to space — also as a contribution to its defense capacity. According to Russwurm, the country is experiencing “dangerous dependence” on space infrastructure and access to space.

“Four times more satellites will be launched this decade than in the previous one. This causes bottlenecks in terrestrial space ports”, says Sabine von der Recke, member of the executive board of Gosa. According to her, this is what makes the operation of another European launch infrastructure so crucial.

Government support

The German government wants to support the development and construction of infrastructure with 2 million euros until 2025. At the same time, however, the BDI demanded greater ambition from Berlin. The government recently presented a new space strategy, which ended up receiving criticism from the sector.

The German Association of Aerospace Industries (BDLI) complained that Germany’s space budget would be cut — which could increase the country’s gap with the United States or China in the space race, the BDI said.

Anna Christmann, the federal government’s aerospace coordinator, dismissed the fears, saying more funding is planned for the European Space Agency (ESA).