The real-world action plan

1. Phase 0 · No permission neededProve it on paperStart now

   Before a dollar of steel, turn the concept into documents a professional can defend. This is the cheapest, fastest way to separate the real from the wishful — and everything after it depends on it.

   • Write a concept of operations (ConOps)

     One document that states the mission: vehicle class, payload, launch cadence, the sea-borne cold-launch sequence, recovery, and the exclusion zone. It becomes the reference every engineer, agency, and investor reads first.

     You draft it; an aerospace systems engineer reviews it.You lead

   • Commission an independent acoustics study

     Pay a real acoustics consultancy to model the near-silent claim against your own numbers. If the water curtain only buys 2–3 dB, you need to know now, honestly, on paper.

     An environmental/architectural acoustics firm.Joint effort

   • Engage a naval architect for the platform

     The barge/cradle is the ownable IP. Get a feasibility sketch and a stability/ballast opinion — is a moonpool cold-launch platform buildable and sea-kindly in New York harbour?

     A naval architecture / marine engineering firm.Joint effort

   • Shortlist launch-vehicle partners

     You contract the rocket, you do not build it. Name three to five small-launch or propulsion houses whose vehicle could sit on your platform, and note who would hold the FAA license.

     You research; the firms are AS9100 small-launch builders.You lead
2. Phase 1 · Secure the groundLock down a siteAfter the paper holds up

   A concept with a real address is ten times more credible than one without. You want a letter of intent for a berth and a plausible environmental story — not a lease yet, just a door that is open.

   • Open talks with the Brooklyn Navy Yard

     Approach BNYDC (the Navy Yard's development corporation) and NYCEDC about a berth or waterfront parcel. Aim for a non-binding letter of intent that lets you say a site is identified.

     BNYDC leasing; NYC Economic Development Corporation.You lead

   • Commission a maritime & bathymetric survey

     Confirm the water is deep enough and the berth workable for a deep-draft cradle — the depth/tide reality behind The Deep Port tab.

     A marine survey firm.Joint effort

   • Get an environmental site read

     The waterfront is likely contaminated ground. Establish early what a NYS Brownfield / NYC Voluntary Cleanup path looks like, so it is a known cost, not a surprise.

     An environmental engineering firm.Joint effort
3. Phase 2 · The rocket is someone else's jobLine up a launch partnerIn parallel with the site

   Owning the platform while contracting the vehicle is the whole strategy. A signed intent with a real launch provider is what turns 'an idea' into 'a program with a supplier'.

   • Sign an MOU with a launch provider

     A memorandum of understanding with a small-launch or propulsion company to study integrating their vehicle with your sea platform. Non-binding, but real.

     A small-launch builder / propulsion house.A licensed partner leads

   • Decide who holds the launch license

     Usually the launch operator, not the site owner. Settle this in writing early — it shapes every regulatory conversation that follows.

     You and the launch partner, with counsel.Joint effort
4. Phase 3 · The long poleWalk the regulatory pathStarts early, finishes last

   This takes the longest, so start the conversations before you feel ready. The goal here is not approval yet — it is a documented, good-faith dialogue with every authority that gets a vote.

   • Request an FAA pre-application consultation

     The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) will meet before any formal filing. This is the single most important door to knock on, and it is free.

     FAA / AST.Joint effort

   • File for orbital spectrum (FCC, then ITU)

     A comms orbiter cannot transmit without an authorized frequency assignment. You file with the FCC, which coordinates the slot internationally through the ITU. Start this first: the filing can take years, and a granted assignment is itself an asset and a moat. The CubeSat path is lighter here (a small LEO radio still needs a grant, but not a scarce GEO slot); a lone GEO orbiter faces the hardest, most contested coordination.

     You and RF/regulatory counsel; the FCC files with the ITU.Joint effort

   • Coordinate the marine exclusion zone

     A sea launch needs a cleared water cordon. Open early coordination with the Coast Guard sector for New York on notices to mariners and exclusion timing.

     USCG Sector New York.Joint effort

   • Write one project description and reuse it everywhere

     Describe the site, barges, operations and safety zone once, then use that same text on every application. Inconsistent descriptions between agencies are what slow permits down. Commission the baseline studies once for everyone too: acoustics, water quality, marine species and historic resources.

     You, with environmental and maritime counsel.You lead

   • Ask for one shared federal environmental review (NEPA)

     The FAA license, Army Corps permits and Coast Guard actions each need an environmental review. Ask the FAA to act as lead agency so the others join as cooperating agencies and share one review instead of three. Endangered species and fish habitat consultation (NOAA Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife) and historic preservation review (Section 106, which matters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard) run inside that same process.

     FAA / AST as lead; USACE and USCG cooperating; NOAA Fisheries; USFWS; State Historic Preservation Office.Joint effort

   • File one New York Joint Application for the water permits

     New York's single Joint Application for Permit reaches NYS DEC (tidal wetlands, protection of waters, Clean Water Act Section 401 certification), the Army Corps (Section 10 work in navigable waters, Section 404 fill or discharge), the NYS Department of State (coastal consistency) and the Office of General Services (use of state-owned underwater land, if the moorings sit on it).

     NYS DEC Region 2; USACE New York District; NYS DOS; NYS OGS.Joint effort

   • Run the state and city reviews alongside the federal one

     The state environmental review (SEQRA) and the city's (CEQR) can be coordinated with NEPA, often using the same studies. City Planning's Waterfront Revitalization Program review runs alongside the state coastal review, and NYC Dept. of Buildings covers anything built on shore.

     NYC Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination; NYC City Planning; NYC DOB.Joint effort

   • Bring in the transportation departments

     Moving cryogenic propellant, oxidizer and large battery packs by road or water is hazardous-materials transport, regulated by the US DOT's PHMSA. Oversize loads and street closures for moving hardware to the piers need NYC DOT permits, and NYSDOT for state roads and bridges. The FAA itself sits inside the US DOT, and MARAD (also US DOT) is worth a call on port infrastructure grants and US-built vessel programs.

     US DOT: PHMSA, MARAD; NYSDOT; NYC DOT.Joint effort

   • Retain regulatory & IP counsel

     A lawyer who knows commercial spaceflight licensing, and separately a patent attorney for the platform IP before any public disclosure narrows your options.

     Aerospace regulatory counsel; patent attorney.You lead
5. Phase 4 · Revenue while you buildStand up the visitor experienceFund the moonshot

   The location-based experience is the part you can actually open soonest, and it pays for the long climb. Real, licensable, and already scaffolded across your /visit tiers.

   • Sign licensed training providers

     Centrifuge familiarisation, medical, and water egress must be delivered by licensed operators — never you directly. Line them up as partners.

     Licensed aerospace-training & medical providers.A licensed partner leads

   • Turn the reservation tiers into real bookings

     When a venue and dates exist, wire a refundable-deposit rail into the founding tiers and convert the interest list you are already capturing.

     You, with the existing payment rail.You lead

   • Line up experience insurance

     A visitor attraction with motion hardware needs its own liability cover, separate from anything launch-related.

     A specialty insurance broker.You lead
6. Phase 5 · The second serviceRent out a mobile launch padProof steps start now; the pad follows training

   The service ladder: astronaut training first (revenue you can open soonest), then a mobile sea launch pad any provider can hire, NASA included, the way NASA and Space Force lease their pads today. The difference is yours moves to the customer's ideal water. You own and run the platform; the provider always brings the rocket, its engines and its ignition. Civic work like the flood barriers is the bonus, not the dependency.

   • Define the pad-for-hire service

     Write the customer-facing offer: which vehicle classes the barge can host, what the pad provides (cold-launch push, propellant loading, power, data, range safety), what the provider brings (vehicle, engines, ignition, their own FAA launch license), and how a campaign is priced and scheduled.

     You, reviewed by a launch-operations advisor.You lead

   • Set up the company family under ReBuildUSAtoday

     ReBuildUSAtoday is the parent. SpaceNoneSuch, FDY, ChowBanQ and BuzzMe each become their own company owned by it. Register each with the state first (LLC or corporation), then get its EIN; an EIN alone does not create a company or protect you. Give each its own bank account, books and contracts so a problem in one cannot reach the parent or the others. Put written agreements between them for shared staff, space, services and who owns or licenses the IP. The parent's four-year track record counts as the owner's experience, but a new company has no history of its own, so expect banks to ask for a parent or personal guarantee early on. If a venture may take venture capital, decide on a Delaware C-corporation before raising.

     You, with a corporate attorney and a CPA.You lead

   • Set up a grant-ready spin-off under the mother company

     Put the launch-pad venture in its own subsidiary so grants, contracts and IP sit in one clean entity. SBIR/STTR need a for-profit US small business (500 or fewer employees, more than half owned by US citizens or residents), and the parent's ownership counts toward that test, as does the whole ReBuildUSAtoday family's headcount. Each applicant needs its own SAM.gov registration and SBIR company registration. Keep in mind that grants are not loans: a bank won't lend against an idea, but an awarded grant or contract is something a bank can underwrite.

     You, with a startup/corporate attorney and an accountant.You lead

   • Build a small cold-launch demonstrator

     Push inert dummy masses (no engine, no propellant) out of a small tube with compressed gas, first on land and then from a small barge. Film it and log the data: exit speed, deck loads, and how the barge moves. This is the proof nobody can dismiss as just an idea, and it stays well clear of rocket-licensing territory.

     You, with a mechanical/pneumatics engineer and a marine test site.Joint effort

   • Apply for non-dilutive grants

     Fund the demonstrator with money that takes no share of the company: SBIR/STTR (NASA, DoD, NSF), SpaceWERX (Space Force), and NASA's Flight Opportunities programme for flight testing. Start early, since award cycles run months. A first Phase I award is also the credential that opens bank and investor doors.

     You, with an SBIR grant writer or consultant.You lead

   • Design the platform (the barge)

     Catamaran or semi-submersible hull with a stable deck, ballast and trim control, dynamic positioning to hold station, mooring fore and aft, and propulsion to reach the launch site. Sea Launch's Odyssey is the proven precedent.

     A naval architecture / marine engineering firm.Joint effort

   • Plan a battery-electric, self-driving fleet

     Drive the barges with swappable battery packs in sealed, climate-controlled shipping containers (IP66/67, above the waterline, fire suppression and gas venting) feeding 360-degree electric thrusters. It already exists: ZES packs in the Netherlands, COSCO's Green Water 01, Yara Birkeland, Crowley's eWolf tug in San Diego. Keep battery containers well apart from cryogenic fuel, plan shore power or a swap point at the home pier, and use a hybrid or tow for long ocean transits. Self-driving is allowed in US waters only with crew supervising: the Coast Guard has no approval path yet for uncrewed commercial vessels, so start crew-supervised and step down as rules catch up.

     Marine battery makers (Corvus Energy, Echandia); thruster makers (ABB Azipod, Schottel); autonomy vendors (Sea Machines, Kongsberg); ABS or DNV class review; USCG plan review.Joint effort

   • Contract the cold-launch system

     The launch tube or canister plus the gas generator or compressed-gas system that pushes the vehicle clear of the deck before its engines light, with deluge water and blast deflection. Never home-built: it comes from a specialist aerospace or defense contractor and sits under ITAR export controls.

     A launch-systems / defense contractor.A licensed partner leads

   • Fit out ground support equipment

     Cryogenic propellant storage and loading lines built to each provider's specs, an onboard power island, data and umbilical connections, and a crane or strongback to lift and hold the vehicle upright.

     GSE contractor, to the launch provider's interface specs.Joint effort

   • Stand up command and range safety

     A separate command vessel for mission control, telemetry and tracking, plus the flight-termination and range-safety systems the FAA requires. It stands off at range so the launch deck can be fully cleared.

     Range-safety specialists; the launch provider's flight team.Joint effort

   • Apply for an FAA launch site operator license

     The big one, and separate from the launch license each provider holds for its own rocket. It licenses you to operate a site others launch from. Open it through the same AST pre-application consultation as Phase 3.

     FAA / AST, with aerospace regulatory counsel.You lead

   • Clear the rest of the licensing stack

     FCC/ITU covers only the radios. You also need Coast Guard coordination for marine exclusion zones, the vessel's flag-state and IMO compliance, environmental review (NEPA federally, NYS DEC locally), ITAR/export registration for the cold-launch hardware, and insurance at the level the FAA sets for a site operator. Watch the Jones Act: vessels moving cargo between US points must be US-built, US-owned and mostly US-crewed, so plan to build the hulls at a US shipyard (batteries, thrusters and autonomy kits can still be imported). Crewing rules also require licensed mariners aboard.

     USCG; flag-state registry; NYS DEC; State Dept. (DDTC) for ITAR; a space insurance broker; maritime counsel for the Jones Act and crewing.Joint effort

   • Get a first letter of intent, then an anchor customer

     Start with one letter of intent saying "we would use this if it existed" from a small launcher, a university rocket team, or a defense hypersonics tester. Show them the demonstrator footage. That letter strengthens every grant, bank and investor conversation. Then turn it into a signed customer, even as a study agreement.

     Small launchers (Rocket Lab, Firefly, Relativity and startups); university sounding-rocket programmes; DoD hypersonics test programmes.You lead
7. Phase 6 · Money & peopleRaise against what is realOngoing

   Raise against the venue business and the ownable platform IP first — both are fundable today. Keep the orbital launch framed as the long-term upside, not the thing you are asking a first cheque to believe.

   • Build the core advisory bench

     An aerospace advisor, a coastal/civil engineer, regulatory counsel, and IP counsel. Credible names de-risk the concept faster than any slide.

     You recruit; advisors lend their standing.You lead

   • Assemble the raise around the venue

     Lead with the experience economy and the platform IP — the parts with real precedent and near-term revenue. The launch is the vision, not the line item a seed investor underwrites.

     You, with the advisory bench behind you.You lead

These drafts are starting points, not legal documents. Have regulatory and IP counsel review the binder and every letter before it leaves your hands.