ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Maritime infrastructure developer Seagate Space and aerospace and defense firm Aurex announced a strategic partnership on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, to provide turnkey offshore orbital launch solutions.
The alliance integrates Seagate Space’s mobile Gateway spaceports with Aurex’s LaunchReady mission engineering framework to offer commercial and national security customers dedicated sea-based launch corridors.
Bypassing Terrestrial Range Constraints
The offshore initiative directly targets mounting capacity bottlenecks at domestic terrestrial spaceports, where annual flight capacity is currently estimated at under 500 launches. With projected satellite deployment demand exceeding 200,000 payloads over the next decade, coastal launch facilities face physical expansion limits and airspace congestion exacerbated by increasing heavy-lift vehicle operations. Moving launch operations into the open ocean enables rocket operators to establish new flight azimuths, guarantee clear downrange safety corridors, and maintain uninterrupted pad availability away from populated areas.
Gateway Architecture and LaunchReady Integration
The partnership operationalizes Seagate Space’s Gateway platforms, which were previously selected to support a collaborative maritime launch architecture with Lockheed Martin and Firefly Aerospace. The integrated offshore service combines physical infrastructure with secure mission management. Constructed from modular steel float units, the mobile Gateway spaceports utilize dynamic positioning and an automated ballasting system to counter wave motion and maintain pad stability during fueling and liftoff, holding a Design Approval in Principle from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Concurrently, aerospace and defense firm Aurex integrates its LaunchReady service to oversee payload encapsulation, autonomous flight safety, secure telemetry routing, and Communications Security (COMSEC) compliance in accordance with the National Space Cybersecurity Policy.
Project Neptune Demonstration Flight
“Offshore launch is essential to sustaining America’s launch cadence and strategic defense posture,” said Warren Kohm, Chief Executive Officer of Aurex.
To validate the offshore operational model, the partnership is supporting Project Neptune, a collegiate spaceflight initiative led by the University of Central Florida (UCF). Seagate Space is providing engineering integration for the student-built rocket, which targets the Kármán line during a maritime demonstration flight scheduled for May 2027 off Florida’s Gulf Coast.
