Elon Musk’s rocket emitted 358 tonnes of CO2 in a six-minute flight

josh jackman
Written By
Updated on 11 May 2021

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship SN15 released 358 tonnes of CO2 during its first complete high-altitude flight on 5 May.

This emissions total is the same amount that 4.6 million people in the UK released in the same time period, according to data we sourced from Everyday Astronaut and the Office for National Statistics.

The damage done by such a short test flight raises environmental concerns about the rocket NASA has chosen to land on the Moon this decade – especially as this was just a prototype.

three Raptor engines in stylised black-and-white

SpaceX’s SN15 prototype of the Starship uses three Raptor engines (seen above), compared to the six engines which the final version of the rocket will use.

This means it’ll be roughly twice as polluting when it’s been completed.

But that’s not all: the Starship has to be combined with a Super Heavy booster to escape the Earth’s atmosphere, for flights into space – and eventually, to the Moon.

This booster will be made up of around 30 engines – 10 times the number that propelled the SN15’s test flight on 5 May.

A Starship flight with the Super Heavy booster will emit 2,683 tonnes of CO2, plus 1.7 tonnes of nitrous oxide.

This greenhouse gas is 298 times more harmful than CO2, which means that over one flight, the rocket will release 3,189.6 tonnes of CO2e*.

* carbon dioxide equivalent, a measurement that converts all greenhouse emissions into CO2 terms

The 1969 Apollo 11 mission that landed humans on the Moon for the first time took eight days overall, so let’s assume the Starship will take the same amount of time for its mission.

We’ve compared that eight-day trip with various sources of emissions over an eight-day period in the UK, as well as Boeing 737 flights, to show exactly how badly the Starship is set to impact the climate.

Written by

josh jackman

Josh has written about and reported on eco-friendly home improvements and climate change for the past four years.

His data-driven work has featured on the front page of the Financial Times and in publications including The Independent, Telegraph, Times, Sun, Daily Express, and Fox News, earned him the position of resident expert in BT's smart home tech initiative, and been referenced in official United Nations and World Health Organisation documents.

He’s also been interviewed on BBC One's Rip-Off Britain, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 5 Live as an expert on everything from renewable energy to government policy and space travel's carbon footprint, and regularly attends Grand Designs Live as a Green Living Expert, giving bespoke advice to members of the public about heat pumps and solar panels.

Josh has also used the journalistic skills he developed at The Jewish Chronicle and PinkNews to investigate and analyse every green government grant in existence, and examine the impact on the climate of cryptocurrency, Glastonbury Festival, and the World Cup.

You can get in touch with Josh via email.

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