Floating launch vehicle operations platform

Suborbital rockets and ballistic missiles had been launched from marine platforms earlier than the 1990s, but are not the topic of this article.

The platform had an approximately 90 by 50 meters (300 ft × 160 ft) landing pad surface and was capable of precision positioning with diesel-powered azimuth thrusters[15] so the platform can hold its position for launch vehicle landing.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk first displayed a photograph of the newly designated "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in November 2014.

[20] On 8 April 2016, the first stage of the rocket that launched the Dragon 1 C110 spacecraft ahead of CRS-8, successfully landed on the drone ship named Of Course I Still Love You, the first successful landing of a rocket booster on a floating platform.

By September 2018, sea platform landings had become routine for the SpaceX launch vehicles, with over 23 attempted and 17 successful recoveries.

[21] As of 2018[update], Blue Origin was in development and intending to land the first stage boosters of New Glenn on a hydrodynamically-stabilized ship.

Landing Platform Vessel 1 (LPV-1), formerly known as DAMEN MANGALIA 522520,[28] is also known by Blue Origin as Jacklyn, the same name as its predecessor ship that was scrapped.