--- title: "Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is Going to Start Sucking CO2 Out of the Air and Turning It Into Rocket Fuel" description: "\"SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel,\" CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. Please join if interested.\"" date: "2021-12-14" modified: "2021-12-14" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-spacex-co2-rocket-fuel" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "carbon dioxide" - "climate change" - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is Going to Start Sucking CO2 Out of the Air and Turning It Into Rocket Fuel !["SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel," CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. Please join if interested."]() *\Image: SpaceX/Futurism\* ## Air Delivery SpaceX is embarking on a bold new adventure: making rocket fuel out of thin air. "SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel," CEO Elon Musk [tweeted on Monday](). "Please join if interested." Such a process — using in-situ resources to generate fuel — could have great implications during our transition to becoming interplanetary, according to Musk. "Will also be important for Mars," he added in a [follow-up tweet](). ## Carbon Appetit It's particularly a pertinent topic for SpaceX's operations, given that its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket [emits plenty of CO2]() when it launches. And it's not quite as far fetched as it sounds. Using a new technique called "direct air capture" (DAC), SpaceX could suck in thousands of tons of carbon dioxide to turn it into a source of fuel, [*Bloomberg* reports](). Iceland [recently started operations]() at the world's largest DAC plant, sucking up to 4,400 tons of CO2 a year. The news comes after Musk [announced a $100 million prize]() to come up with carbon removal technologies earlier this year. The goal is to pull 1,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually — and eventually scaling up the operation dramatically. "I think this is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out what the right solution is," [Musk explained]() back in April. "And especially to figure out what the best economics are for CO2 removal." "Right now we've only got one planet," Musk said at the time. "Even a 0.1 percent chance of disaster — why run that risk? That's crazy!" **More on carbon capture:** [*Scientists Fire Up World's Biggest Carbon Capture Machine*]() ## 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]()