Energy Shots #108:

Fueling Starships

SpaceX’s Mechazilla tower caught its first Super Heavy booster today, less than a year after the Starship rocket became the heaviest object to ever reach space.

With a height of 121 m (397 ft) and mass of 5,000 metric tons (11,000,000 lbs), it’s difficult to appreciate the scale of the combined Starship and Super Heavy stack — akin to launching the mass of 550 semi trucks in a stack as tall as the Statue of Liberty to an altitude of 40 miles.

Inherently, such a feat requires immense thrust — provided by 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and 6 Raptor engines on the Starship spacecraft.

• At full power, these 39 engines produce a combined 20 million lb-feet of thrust — more than double that of the Saturn V’s S-IC (first stage) and S-II (second stage) boosters.

However, this thrust comes with a price tag — the fuel required for 39 Raptor engines comprises approximately 92% of the Starship’s total 5,000 metric ton mass.

Propellant mass for the full stack (Starship + Super Heavy):

• Super Heavy booster: 3,400 tons (7.5 million lb)

• Starship: 1,200 tons (2.6 million lb)

• Total: 4,600 tons (10.1 million lb)

Starship’s fuel consumption requires closer inspection for energy markets, particularly considering SpaceX’s goal to have a fleet of 1,000 Starship spacecraft each operating 1,000 100-ton payload flights per year.

• The Starship fuel system uses sub-cooled liquid methane (~LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX) in a 3.6:1 (oxygen-to-methane) mixture ratio. Applying this ratio to the propellant mass of the full Starship/Super Heavy stack yields methane content of approximately 1,278 metric tons or ~62.24 million standard cubic feet (mmscf).

In other words, the total methane combustion energy of a single Starship launch into low earth orbit (LEO) is approximately equal to the daily primary energy consumption of 345,161 people.

Meanwhile, the SpaceX plan to fly an average of three flights per day per Starship across a fleet of 1,000 Starships translates into more mind-boggling sums.

• 1,000 Starships flying three flights per day consumes approximately 186.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of methane/natural gas — nearly 2.1x the US’ total daily natural gas consumption in 2023 (89.1 Bcf/d).

While SpaceX is unlikely to reach this level of launch activity before the turn of the decade, the figure emphasizes themes shared by other emerging technologies like AI:

1. Demand growth from nascent/developing sectors remains underappreciated

2. Emerging energy-intensive technology prioritizes density, cost, and reliability — specifications best aligned with traditional resources like natural gas.

For readers who did not see today’s launch and catch in the Mechazilla tower’s “chopstick” arms, we highly recommend this sub-3-minute video summary:

This commentary contains our views and opinions and is based on information from sources we believe are reliable. This commentary is for informational purposes, should not be considered investment advice, and is not intended as an offer or solicitation concerning the purchase and sale of commodity interests or to serve as the basis for one to decide to execute derivatives or other transactions. This commentary is intended for Mobius clients only and is not considered promotional material.