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SpaceX Plans To Build 'Starpipe' Natural Gas Pipeline To Fuel Starship Rockets (reuters.com) 51

Posted by BeauHD from the ramping-up dept.
SpaceX plans to begin building an eight-mile natural gas pipeline called "Starpipe" next month to supply its Starbase launch site with fuel for a much higher cadence of Starship launches. The pipeline is expected to enter service in January 2027. Reuters reports: 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 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.

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 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.

SpaceX Plans To Build 'Starpipe' Natural Gas Pipeline To Fuel Starship Rockets More | Reply

SpaceX Plans To Build 'Starpipe' Natural Gas Pipeline To Fuel Starship Rockets

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  • lol

    (That's literally what I did)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Apparently, "Gigapipe" was already taken.

      And this is old news. 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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      The old brown eye.

  • Should be doable for somebody targeting Mars.

    • That's why he created the Boring Company, to make more gas lines for rocket sites.

    • Re:8 miles? (Score:4, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday June 27, 2026 @10:21AM (#66212840)
      Yeah but it's going to explode seven times before they managed to get any gas through it.

      • Because non-destructive testing works sooo much better. Stockton Rush would be so proud that somebody finally agrees with him!

        • Because non-destructive testing works sooo much better.

          For things people will live in or on or around, yes, yes it is.

          • So it's your argument that the pipes, seals, and other materials used to build all of this are best left with unknown tolerances and unknown failure modes, because they've never gone through destructive testing.

            I see you're another graduate from the Stockton Rush school of engineering.

            • I'm pretty sure there's "purposefully" destructive testing, and then there's "whoops it just exploded when we didn't mean for it to explode, but hey we'll just act like it's no big deal and pretend that failing the primary mission was the mission all along!!"

              For example: when Falcon Heavy was purposefully detonated to make sure the range safety abort actually worked, while also testing to make sure the payload abort separation rocket and parachutes work properly. There's no other way to really test those t

              • There are a few things at play here:

                - There isn't one single system or subsystem that's being tested on each starship flight, there are dozens. What you're seeing is the broader objective of mission control, which is after liftoff.
                - All flights so far have included new components that have never been tested and never been proven to work. In some cases, the concept itself hasn't been proven. You may recall a while back when a falcon rocket exploded on the launch pad. That itself was the first use of an unpro

  • Someday we'll all have natural gas pipelines. (Score:5, Funny)

    by shess ( 31691 ) on Saturday June 27, 2026 @10:40AM (#66212860) Homepage

    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.

    • I think rsilvergun could do that long before Elon could. He alone produces 30% of North America's natural gas, the problem is he vents it directly into the atmosphere.

  • 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
    • In 1910, Teddy Roosaveldt said: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who

  • Meh. We've got those criss-crossing my neighborhood.

    A 16" LNG pipeline? Now that's interesting.

  • Building infrastructure for productive activity? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Saturday June 27, 2026 @11:55AM (#66212948)

    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!

  • And yet . . . (Score:4, Informative)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday June 27, 2026 @12:02PM (#66212958)

    He can't use electricity to power his datacenter in Tennessee, instead runing unpermitted gas turbines [theguardian.com] 24/7 simply because it's next to poor people [politico.com].

    • How closely did you read that? Local law and officials said they could install temporary generators without permits while waiting for a grid connection. The EPA stepped in and ruled that they have the sole authority to make that determination, not local law. The Guardian and Politico both worded it to lead you to the conclusion you made, that they were flauting the law and poisoning people, but it sure looks like they were acting in good faith and according to local laws and permitting rules. And both s

      • When Musk proposed the data center he said the turbines would be temporary. Over a year later and all he's done is add more turbines while not making a single attempt to get a permit. He does this because the surrounding community is mostly poor black people who already have a high incidence of asthma and other health issues.

        So no, the articles are not incorrect. He's running unpermitted gas tubines.

        • Unpermitted because it wasn't required at the time.

          And it is appallingly racist of you to assume that the demographics of the surrounding community drove decision making. An industrial site went into an industrial park, big f-ing deal.

  • At what point will we run out of space to put all those satellites, particularly into stationary earth orbit? And who manages traffic congestion? Next, let's worry about what happens if one satellite has a catastrophic accident (or is knocked out by an ASAT), and all-of-a-sudden, that orbit starts loading up with junk?

    Enquiring minds want to know! (Particularly so I can short SpaceX stock...)

    • At what point will we run out of space to put all those satellites

      Do the math! The Earth is ~12,800 km in diameter, so a LEO shell from 350-450 km up is about 13,300 km in diameter and about 100 km thick. That gives a volume of about 56 billion km^2. If we give every satellite 100 km^3, that means we're limited to about 56 million satellites.

      particularly into stationary earth orbit?

      Oh, you want geostationary orbit? That's way, way, way bigger (though possibly subject to Kessler syndrome, unlike LEO).

      And who manages traffic congestion?

      Basically every space agency does this.

      Next, let's worry about what happens if one satellite has a catastrophic accident (or is knocked out by an ASAT), and all-of-a-sudden, that orbit starts loading up with junk?

      This is a potential concern for high orbits, not so much for where most

  • It's the most efficient, safest way to move fuel without burdening rail and road nets with LNG tankers which are large mobile fire and explosion hazards.

    That's why there are well over two million miles of natgas pipeline in the US so far. Eight miles should impress no one. Andrew Carnegie drilled natgas wells and built a twenty mile pipeline to Pittsburgh steel plants in the 1880s.

  • So that pipeline passing through your property, or public land, will be solely for a private business and its profits vs any utility or public consumer consumption.

  • Meanwhile is anyone wondering what all of these launches might be doing to the upper atmosphere?

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