As of December 2014, the first drone ship used, the McDonough Marine Service's Marmac 300 barge, was based in Jacksonville, Florida, at the northern tip of the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal (30.409144°N 81.582493°W) where SpaceX built a stand to secure the Falcon stage during post-landing operations. The stand consists of four 15,000 lb (6,800 kg), 107 in (270 cm) tall and 96.25 in (244.5 cm) wide pedestal structures bolted to a concrete base. A mobile crane will lift the stage from the ship and place it on the stand. Tasks such as removing or folding back the landing legs prior to placing the stage in a horizontal position for trucking will occur here.[9]
The ASDS landing location for the first landing test was in the Atlantic approximately 200 miles (320 km) northeast of the launch location at Cape Canaveral, and 165 miles (266 km) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina.[3][10]
On 23 January 2015, during repairs to the ship following the unsuccessful first test, Musk announced that the ship was to be named Just Read the Instructions,[11] with a sister ship planned for west coast launches to be named Of Course I Still Love You.[12] On 29 January, SpaceX released a manipulated photo of the ship with the name illustrating how it would look once painted.[13] Both ships are named after two General Contact Units, spaceships commanded by autonomous artificial intelligences, that appear in The Player of Games, a Culture novel by Iain M. Banks.[14]
The first Just Read the Instructions was retired in May 2015 after approximately six months of service in the Atlantic, and its duties were assumed by Of Course I Still Love You.[15] The former ASDS was modified by removing the wing extensions that had extended the barge surface and the equipment (thrusters, cameras and communications gear) that had been added to refit it as an ASDS; these items were saved for future reuse.[15] In 2018, SpaceX began construction of a third barge, A Shortfall of Gravitas.[16]
Source: Wikipedia