According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), China appears to be planning to launch its first rocket from open waters very soon. Allegedly, the launch will feature a 31-meter (102-foot) tall, solid-fuelled Jielong-3 and will occur around 7:30 pm local time on Saturday, 18 April.

The rocket will launch from a 532-foot (162-meter) long, 131-foot (40-meter) wide barge, the Dong Fang Hang Tian Gang, which has been specially converted for the purpose. This barge has also been modified to operate safely in international waters.

According to reports, the rocket will travel with the barge from Haiyang in eastern Shandong province to the planned launch site in the South China Sea. Reportedly, this will mark China’s first long-distance, cross-sea deployment of its kind.

The rocket itself was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology specifically for commercial space missions. This launch is not only interesting in and of itself, but marks just another point in a growing trend of ocean launches of space rockets.

This is for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is a combination of cost, safety, and flexibility. Believe it or not, but existing land-based launch sites are becoming increasingly busy with both commercial and military satellite launches.

China plans ocean-based rocket launch

Traditional spaceports like those in Florida and California are now getting crowded, meaning new launches may have long waiting times. New spaceports require large amounts of land, take time to build, and are very expensive to set up.

One solution, it is believed, could be to create specially modified or designed ships to act as launch platforms too. This gives operators access to infinitely more launch locations, more flexible launch timings, and much less “congestion” in terms of launch schedules.

“Ocean launch(s) will be very important in the future as spaceports on land become too crowded with higher flight rates. We’re running out of room at traditional space ports,” Rand Simberg, an aerospace engineer and space policy analyst based in the US state of Wyoming, told SCMP.

From a safety perspective, ocean-based launches could also be a game-changer. At present, many modern rockets (like SpaceX and Blue Origin) are increasingly using methane fuel. Such rockets are very powerful, but are inherently more explosive than older rockets.

For this reason, they tend to require large safety zones in case of disaster. If such rockets could be launched at sea, then explosions would be less of an issue for neighbouring population centers.

Rocket launches are also very noisy affairs, which can, and do, create very large sonic booms during the launch. This is not pleasant for surrounding communities, and if space launches are to be a regular affair, noise pollution of this kind would prove intolerable for locals.

Safer and cheaper way to launch rockets

By exporting launches to sea, this is another problem solved with relative ease. Space launches also reduce the risk of accidental damage from falling parts (like rocket boosters, fairings, etc) during launches.

These can be large and heavy pieces of kit that could hit populated areas and damage things like buildings. By having the launch at sea, the debris will land safely in the ocean.

For China, this kind of strategy is also smart, as it gives them access to launch sites closer to the equator than mainland Chinese sites. Launches from such locations can maximize the benefit of Earth’s rotation, giving them an extra boost during launch.

This means rockets should have the ability to launch larger payloads for less cost. It is partly for this reason that NASA used sites in Florida, and the European Space Agency (ESA) has launch sites in French Guiana.