--- title: "Elon Musk Says It Could Take Eight Starship Launches to Fuel Up a Single Moon Trip" description: "According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, it will take about eight Starship and Super Heavy booster launches to fill up one lunar variant for a trip to the Moon." date: "2021-08-11" modified: "2021-08-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-starships-fuel-moon" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Moon" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "super heavy" --- # Elon Musk Says It Could Take Eight Starship Launches to Fuel Up a Single Moon Trip ![According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, it will take about eight Starship and Super Heavy booster launches to fill up one lunar variant for a trip to the Moon.]() *\Image: SpaceX/Futurism\* Delivering astronauts to the Moon is no easy feat, and it requires a disgusting amount of rocket fuel to pull it off. With its fuel tanks filled to the brim, NASA's Saturn V rocket weighed in at [6.5 million pounds]() during the Apollo missions almost half a century ago. It managed to burn up [20 tons of rocket fuel]() — every second. Fast forward several decades, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is trying to achieve similar greatness with his space company's Starship rocket. This time, it's gonna take a lot of refueling to get there. SpaceX competitor Blue Origin [recently griped]() that SpaceX might need as many as 16 launches to get to the Moon. But "16 flights is extremely unlikely," Musk shot back in a [Wednesday tweet](). "Starship payload to orbit is \[about\] 150 tons , so max of 8 to fill 1200 ton tanks of lunar Starship." "Without flaps & heat shield, Starship is much lighter," Musk continued. "Lunar landing legs don’t add much (1/6 gravity). May only need 1/2 full, i.e. 4 tanker flights." And even if it did take 16 launches, Musk said, that wouldn't be a problem. "However, even if it were 16 flights with docking, this is not a problem," he added in a [follow-up tweet](). "SpaceX did more than 16 orbital flights in first half of 2021 & has docked with Station (much harder than docking with our own ship) over 20 times." Still, launch Starship and its mammoth Super Heavy rocket stage are a much, much bigger undertaking than SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket — and even its significantly [more powerful Falcon Heavy](). That raises another key question: whether Musk is implying that astronauts would have to wait half a year in orbit for their ride to the Moon to fully fuel up. The complexities involved are staggering. For one, Falcon 9's first stage only incorporates nine Merlin engines. The Super Heavy booster alone will make use of 29 much larger Raptor engines. The space company also has yet to complete its first orbital test launch involving the spacecraft and its booster. But such a launch may not be too far off. SpaceX [recently stacked]() a Starship prototype on top of a Super Heavy rocket stage for the first time in anticipation of the booster's maiden voyage. If all goes well, Starship will go orbital before the end of the summer. Only then, will SpaceX be able to tackle the next hurdle in its Moonshot journey: a [refueling in space](), involving two Starships. **More on Starship:** *[Elon Musk-approved Render Shows Two Starships, uh, Exchanging Fluids]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()