It appears SpaceX has an interest in natural gas in Texas, reports Bloomberg.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been very busy, as always. Aside from building rockets at Boca Chica, plus a Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, the CEO’s SpaceX has plans to drill for natural gas in the Lone Star State.
According to a Friday hearing in front of the Railroad Commission of Texas, SpaceX said it plans to drill for natural gas near its Boca Chica launchpad.
What’s the plan for the natural gas? Lone Star Mineral Development, a SpaceX subsidiary, said the extracted methane would be used “in connection with their rocket facility operations,” said lawyer Tim George, representing Lone Star.
Production has yet to begin due to a complex legal battle between Lone Star Mineral Development and another energy company, related to ownership of some inactive wells located on property owned by the SpaceX subsidiary.
It remains unclear what SpaceX will be using natural gas specifically for, but it is related to rockets in some capacity. Currently, SpaceX Raptor engines are powered by cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen.
Just yesterday, SpaceX tested a static fire of SN9, ahead of an expected test flight in the coming days (head to 9:24 of the video below from NASASpaceflight):
Tomorrow, SpaceX and its Falcon 9 booster will launch its Transporter-1 mission in the morning.
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