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Commercialization

Who Invented The Space Barge?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 5, 2015
Filed under ,
Who Invented The Space Barge?

How Deep Can A Space Patent Dispute Go?, Medium
“Blue Origin, LLC (“Blue”) filed U.S. Patent Application No. 12/815,306, entitled “Sea Landing of Space Launch Vehicles and Associated Systems and Methods” with a priority date of June 15, 2009 which ultimately issued as U.S. Patent No. 8,678,321 in March of 2014. More popularly known as the Sea Landing Patent, this patent currently covers the broad process of a vertical takeoff rocket taking off on land and vertically landing on a sea-based floating structure. SpaceX has been incrementally and painfully working toward actually pulling this off for several years now and are just now about to attempt the task. To date, no one has attempted, much less accomplished, this feat. If/when SpaceX is successful, the barriers to a mainstream space economy will have demonstrably lowered and yours truly will be one big robotic rocket-powered step closer to lawyering in space.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

12 responses to “Who Invented The Space Barge?”

  1. J C says:
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    What is unique and proprietary about landing a rocket on a boat? Sounds kind of like trying to patent parallel parking.

    • Vladislaw says:
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      The patent was awarded to a barge. SpaceX is utlizing an autonomous, spaceport drone ship. lol
      ship versus a barge.

      • DTARS says:
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        A barge has a flat bottom and is towed. A ship or boat has a keel. Since Spacex Autonomous Spaceport drone has thrusters, what is it a barge or ship? Seems Bezos patent has less to do with how to design a boat to catch a rocket and more to do with propulsive rocket return. Who else other than Bezos has a patent on propulsive rocket return?

        • Saturn1300 says:
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          Above says structure, not barge or ship. They might mean an anchored oil drill rig. I would say a barge or ship is a structure. They are vessels. So SpaceX is clear. SpaceX calls it a ship. They said barge has no engines. Notice to mariners has the coordinates of the landing. A sea hazard. They said they will drive off ships. How? It is a free ocean. What do they do about airplanes? See and be seen. They said will not be live and will not know right away. There will be airplanes. They will know in minutes. They just want tell us.

          • DTARS says:
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            I wonder if the reason they don’t want it called a barge is legal. Does the Bezo patent call their platform a barge?

          • Saturn1300 says:
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            This article is complicated and from it I can not say how it will come out. There are a lot of possible outcomes given. BO has asked for a reissue. It is not available. Try to read the whole thing. You might find something you like. The original patent is not any good I think, so it does not matter what it was called. If you want to take the Donzi out, you can find out where it is in the marine warnings. They said the pictures go through the Internet, which sometimes does not work. I checked the range on my WiFi and I think I will go out and see a night launch. Maybe take a video.

  2. Jackalope3000 says:
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    Space barge = no different than an aircraft carrier

  3. Vladislaw says:
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    https://www.youtube.com/wat
    great landing video.

  4. dahduh says:
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    Putting aside Blue’s abuse of the patent system: its jurisdiction is the United States, and it covers only the _landing_ of the rocket. If the platform is located outside of US territorial waters, would the patent apply? And if not, Blue would have no grounds for preventing import of the rocket back into the US. And if Blue does file international patents (but it seems they only filed in the US with no PCT so in other jurisdictions it is prior art), I don’t think any law covers international waters. And, if Blue push this too hard, the logical thing for SpaceX is to perfect landing on barges, convince e.g. Texas to host land-based landings, and just avoid the patent all together.

  5. Jafafa Hots says:
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    Next Bezos patent: one-click launching.

  6. martynWW says:
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    At Rotary Rocket they were working on the concept of launching and landing VTOVLs on ships back in the late 1990s. It wasn’t exactly a new idea, even then. Here’s a model they built for a proposal.

  7. Mader Levap says:
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    This patent it is not worth bits where it is saved and everyone knows this.