SpaceX is planning to build an eight-mile (13-km) natural gas pipeline in Texas to support launches of its Mars-bound Starship rocket.
Construction of the so-called ‘Starpipe’ pipeline, which will connect to SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility, is set to begin next month, according to company filings with the Texas Railroad Commission.
The space firm currently relies on hundreds of tanker trucks to fuel its Starship rocket, which uses around 630,000 gallons of liquid methane each launch.
Elon Musk’s company also has longer term plans to set up drilling operations in southern Texas in order to control its fueling infrastructure.
Starpipe is expected to be in service by 26 January, according to a document filed last month by SpaceX affiliate Lone Star Mineral Development and reviewed by Reuters.
The pipeline plan, previously 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.
Designed to be fully reusable, Starship has completed 12 test launches since 2023, but Musk aims to ramp up to dozens, hundreds and eventually thousands of launches a year.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on 12 June, 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.
Extracting natural gas would be a challenging pursuit for a company with no oil and gas experience, said Stan Lindsey, an oil and gas consultant in Texas.
“I’m not saying it's beyond the realm of possibility and it’s possible they got a really nice prospect,” Mr Lindsey said. But if those drilling plans fall short, he added, “they’ve got a fallback position” with Starpipe.
SpaceX has signed over 100 paid-up oil and gas leases with Texas property owners since 2023, the land records show.
Starpipe would begin on an 83-acre (34-hectare) piece of land at the Port of Brownsville that SpaceX is in talks to lease from the city for 50 years, a port official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private.
The pipeline’s 16-inch (406-mm) diameter suggests fuel demand exceeding what Starship would require for 25 launches, the annual cadence currently approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The next Starship test flight is expected to take place next month, though SpaceX first needs to complete a review ordered by the FAA following a mishap during its most recent launch last month.
