News from the time the rigs were sold were relatively clear https://spacenews.com/spacex-drops-plans-to-covert-oil-rigs-into-launch-platforms/ https://spacenews

News from the time the rigs were sold were relatively clear https://spacenews.com/spacex-drops-plans-to-covert-oil-rigs-into-launch-platforms/ https://spacenews.com/spacex-drops-plans-to-covert-oil-rigs-... Shotwell said "They were not the right platform" and that they needed "to first start launching Starship and better understand that vehicle before building offshore launch platforms". The stated goal of Starship is that the booster can be refueled and relaunched from the recovery tower within hours. So "launch platform" is a misnomer, these guys are ideally also recovery platforms (with the chopsticks and all that). In addition, even if an offshore platform could work for booster recovery, it still needs a Starship to be stacked. There's probably a bunch of concern about having a Starship sitting around in the open near a booster recovery (the exact effect of blast/debris around a booster recovery is probably one thing they'd want to characterize).