[kevviiinn]

Is there any reason that these launches can't take place a bit offshore?

[prepend]

Yes, of course. Do you think that this expensive and complicated launch platform is built there because it could take place a bit offshore? And all the other launch facilities.

[kevviiinn]

So what are those reasons

A reason for not doing it offshore could be just that it's cheaper to do onshore. We live in a capitalistic system after all

[prepend]

I hate to be that person, but feel free to research them. I’m not going to enumerate them here. But perhaps start with the FAA request and resolution.

I don’t think it’s smart to assume that just because I’m not aware of some information that it’s unknown.

This article [0] describes some of the reasons why spacex is investigating offshore launches, but choosing not to do it, for now.

[0] https://maritime-executive.com/article/spacex-suspends-plan-...

[kevviiinn]

That article doesn't seem to mention any reasons not to launch at sea and goes on to state:

>The concept of sea launch has been used successfully before, and it makes commercial sense for some applications. Orbital launch trajectories are affected by location, and a sea-based launch allows the operator to pick the site to maximize efficiency and payload. The space company Sea Launch used a secondhand MODU to launch Ukrainian-built Zenit rockets for 15 years.

[prepend]

So what else did you find? What do you think are the reasons that SpaceX and other launch centers (NASA, roscosmos, cnsa) use ground based launches instead of offshore?