SpaceX Plans To Build 'Starpipe' Natural Gas Pipeline To Fuel Starship Rockets (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0184099998
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/06/26/0037206/spacex-plans-to-build-starpipe-natural-gas-pipeline-to-fuel-starship-rockets
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/spacex-plans-build-starpipe-natural-gas-pipeline-fuel-starship-rockets-2026-06-25/
> The pipeline plan, previously [2]reported by Rio Grande Valley Business Journal , signals Musk's intent to accelerate Starship's development and lay the groundwork for a faster flight rate. The 40-story rocket is central to SpaceX's push to expand its Starlink broadband network, deploy orbital AI data center satellites, and eventually carry astronauts to the moon and Mars.
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> Designed to be fully reusable, Starship uses about 630,000 gallons (2.4 million liters) of liquid methane per launch, currently delivered by hundreds of tanker trucks in an hours-long process incompatible with Musk's expansion plans. Starship has completed 12 test launches since 2023, but Musk aims to ramp up to dozens, hundreds and eventually thousands of launches a year.
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> Though it is unusual for a space company to build its own natural gas pipeline for launchpad fuel, Starpipe might only be an initial step in a longer-term plan for SpaceX, which has spent years exploring its own drilling operations near Starbase and throughout Texas, according to a Reuters review of Cameron County land records. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell [3]told CNBC on June 12, when the company went public, that the company planned to build pipelines and process its own propellant, and was looking into drilling its own natural gas.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/spacex-plans-build-starpipe-natural-gas-pipeline-fuel-starship-rockets-2026-06-25/
[2] https://www.rgvbusinessjournal.com/news/23/06/2026/spacex-is-planning-a-new-gas-pipeline-across-the-brownsville-ship-channel-heres-what-we-know/
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/06/12/spacex-president-and-coo-gwynne-shotwell-exclusive-interview.html
Whelp (Score:1)
The man knows how to get things done.
Re: Whelp (Score:2)
That's gonna be so badass next year!
8 miles? (Score:2)
Should be doable for somebody targeting Mars.
Re: (Score:2)
That's why he created the Boring Company, to make more gas lines for rocket sites.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah but it's going to explode seven times before they managed to get any gas through it.
Someday we'll all have natural gas pipelines. (Score:3)
This is amazing. Hopefully by breaking new ground like this, Musk will be able to bring natural gas to the masses. Can you imagine if they could just build natural-gas pipelines on demand, pretty much wherever you wanted to? This kind of cutting-edge development will truly open new vistas of human endeavor.
The jokes write themselves (Score:1)
The man of the hour is so high on his own farts he's building a pipeline to import dinosaur farts. Not that he's a dinosaur, after all those makeovers, he even almost looks human. No wonder he wants to leave earth, we're running out of his favorite fuel in only a few hundred years. His fleet of methane-thirsty sky leviathans need to be ready to get him to his moon lair before he's stranded down here with the apes. The engineers keep insisting methane is an efficient rocket propellant, but that is exactly th
A 16" Pipleline, 8 miles? (Score:2)
Meh. We've got those criss-crossing my neighborhood.
A 16" LNG pipeline? Now that's interesting.
Building infrastructure for productive activity? (Score:1)
No no no. You need six years of environmental impact statements (per foot if pipeline) while tanker trucks keep driving the stuff on local roadways. Think of the children!
Starpipe (Score:2)
lol
(That's literally what I did)
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently, "Gigapipe" was already taken.
And this is old news. [1]https://x.com/SERobinsonJr/sta... [x.com]
> On May 20th, the Port of Brownsville Navigation District Board of Commissioners unanimously approved authority to negotiate an easement and right-of-way for a SpaceX planned 16-inch natural gas pipeline from the Port of Brownsville to Starbase.
[1] https://x.com/SERobinsonJr/status/2064061522209304627
Re: (Score:2)
The old brown eye.