Delivering astronauts to the Moon demands massive fuel reserves. SpaceX's Starship must undergo orbital refueling before heading to our nearest neighbor. But precisely how many tanker launches will it take?
For crewed lunar missions, SpaceX's Starship requires in-orbit refueling. A crewed vehicle launches first into Earth orbit, followed by tanker Starships that transfer propellant. Once fueled, it proceeds to the Moon. The key question: how many such operations are needed to top off the tanks?
Recently, Blue Origin—still reacting to NASA's selection of SpaceX as the exclusive lunar lander provider—shared an infographic claiming over ten Starship tanker launches would be required for one Moon trip.
At the time, SpaceX hadn't specified the exact figure. Elon Musk addressed this on Twitter (now X), noting that with Starship's orbital payload capacity of about 150 tons, just eight launches suffice to fill the 1,200-ton propellant tanks for a lunar vehicle.
Musk further suggested a flap- and heat-shield-free version could halve that to four tankers, reducing overall mass.
Even if it took ten or more launches, Musk emphasized it's feasible. "SpaceX completed over 16 orbital flights in the first half of 2021 alone and has docked with the ISS (far trickier than ship-to-ship) more than 20 times," he tweeted.
SpaceX and NASA remain confident. Yet timing remains unclear: for four, six, or eight refuelings, how long? SpaceX's next orbital test flight (likely by late summer) will pave the way, followed by a demonstration in-space refueling mission to refine these operations.
