Space travel: Rocket launches from the North Sea planned

In April 2024, a rocket is scheduled to take off for the first time from a mobile launch platform in the Nordee. BDI President Russwurm announced this at the association’s space congress.

A floating launch platform in the North Sea from which small launchers can launch: This idea is now set to become reality. The starting point is approximately 300 kilometers from Bremerhaven, in the so-called exclusive economic zone of Germany. Today, BDI President Siegfried Russwurm announced that the demo mission will start in April 2024.

Then a rocket from the Dutch company T-Minus will take off in the North Sea for the first time. This launch will be suborbital. This means the rocket will not reach space. The plan: In the future, European rockets will launch in the North Sea and launch satellites into space. The operator consortium specifies that the first so-called “demo campaign” will run for around two weeks. And further: “During this time, the launch of up to four rockets with a maximum length of 7 meters and a flight altitude of up to 50 km is planned. The rockets will be delivered by our partners Copenhagen Suborbitals, T-Minus, Space Team Aachen and FAR built.”

Launches of small launch vehicles

Sabine von der Recke, Managing Director of the German Offshore Spaceport Alliance (GOSA), a joint venture of four companies that want to build and operate the launch site, explains: “The launch point is a stroke of luck because it is a so-called white space in the spatial planning plan of the exclusive economic zone “That means there is nothing planned there in the foreseeable future, such as no offshore wind farm.”

In the future, so-called microlaunchers, i.e. small and light carrier rockets, will be launched into space to bring satellites into space. Von der Recke explains the procedure: “While still on land, in our case in Bremerhaven, the orbital rocket is married to its payload, the satellite, in a space integration hall. The fully integrated rocket is then placed in a so-called launch box. The box is opened the ship rolled, then the ship goes to the North Sea.”

There the box is opened, the rocket is set up, refueled and launched from the ship. Take-offs from the mainland are not possible because, for safety reasons, you do not fly over inhabited areas immediately after take-off. Von der Recke continued: “That’s why spaceports all over the world, with a few exceptions, are close to the coast.”

Initiative for German Spaceport

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) launched the initiative for a private-sector launch platform in the North Sea at its first space congress in 2019. At the time, the plan caused a lot of excitement and was laughed at by some. After a feasibility study came to a positive result, the project has now made significant progress.

Matthias Wachter, who is responsible for space at the BDI, explains: “Two years ago, four European rocket manufacturers signed declarations of intent in the BDI to launch from this platform in the North Sea. There is no European project for launch options that is based on this “Arouses great interest like that in the North Sea.”

Independent access to space

With the possibility of launching rockets from the North Sea, Germany and Europe would secure further independent access to space. The launch site complements the ESA spaceport Kourou in French Guiana, which is part of France. The industry’s need to bring small satellites into space will continue to grow, according to the BDI. The North Sea is an ideal starting point for this.

“In the past, satellites were very large. We are talking about small cars that were primarily launched near the equator because the satellites were firmly positioned in geostationary orbits. For this it was advantageous to launch near the equator to the east, Taking the Earth’s rotation with you saves fuel.”

Today satellites are much smaller. Many are only the size of a shoebox and fly in so-called constellations. Wachter further explains: “In order to achieve global coverage, these small satellites, these constellations, are positioned in polar sun-synchronous orbits, which means, to put it simply, the satellites fly from the North Pole to the South Pole and up again on the other side. The Earth rotates underneath , and so you can achieve global coverage in one day with a chain of satellites.”

Securing your own infrastructure

The Bundeswehr could also be interested in rocket launches from the North Sea. In this context, the term “responsive space” comes up again and again. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense explains:

This means: It is also about the question of how satellites that have failed in space can be replaced as quickly as possible. Satellite-based communication and reconnaissance are now so important that satellites can become targets for attack by the enemy in the event of war.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine there was a cyber attack on a US company’s satellite. At the time, the EU strongly condemned the “malicious cyber activities of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”. The cyberattack led to outages and disruptions in communications among several government agencies, companies and users in Ukraine and Western countries.

Search for starting places

According to the Ministry of Defense, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is being supported in the investigation of technologies with military relevance. This also includes, among other things, a potential rocket launch site. A spokesman specifies: “The DLR is therefore investigating, among other things, the military relevance of different launch sites, delivery types, carrier systems and launch service providers for satellite launches from Germany and Europe.”

However, this does not mean a preference for launch sites for rocket systems, neither geographically nor in relation to companies, according to reports from Berlin. In the past, German satellites for radar reconnaissance were also launched into space using Russian launchers from the Plesetsk cosmodrome south of Arkhangelsk. This would no longer be possible today for security reasons. A launch site in the North Sea has many advantages, explains Sabine von der Recke: “You can send payloads up at short notice, quickly and sometimes not so prominently visible.”

There are already several launch sites for rockets in Europe, for example in Sweden and Great Britain. So far, no orbital rockets have been launched into Earth orbit from non-Russian Europe.

From the North Sea to space

It is still unknown when the first rockets will actually launch from the North Sea into space to deploy satellites. While there are already suborbital rates, orbital microlaunchers are not yet ready, explains von der Recke. After delays, several German rocket manufacturers have announced launches for the near future.

With a liftoff in April 2024, the aim is to first go through the basic process of rocket launches from the North Sea. If satellites are actually put into orbit at a later date, even higher security levels will apply – for example because not only the rocket but also the satellite must be refueled with fuel. An ambitious project with which Germany and Europe want to achieve their own access to space.