A SpaceX subsidiary wants to build a 32.4-mile natural gas pipeline through Brevard County to feed the company’s launch operations at Cape Canaveral, according to filings with the Florida Public Service Commission.

Coastal Connect Services LLC petitioned the commission on June 8th for approval of a natural gas transmission tariff and a firm transportation service agreement with SpaceX. The 16-inch steel line would draw gas from the Florida Gas Transmission interstate system and carry it to SpaceX facilities at the Cape. SpaceX would contract for every bit of the line’s capacity.

The commission suspended the tariff Aug. 24 to give its staff more time to review the request. The docket, No. 20260094-GU, remains open.

Where Will It Go?

The line would run an estimated 32.4 miles and begin and end inside Brevard County, according to responses Coastal Connect filed July 10 to questions from commission staff. It would tie into the Florida Gas Transmission pipeline about 1.5 miles east of the Indian River and southwest of State Road 528, the Beachline Expressway. A meter station would sit within a few hundred feet of that interconnect.

The company said it is still working out the exact route based on available rights-of-way. It plans to operate at 1,480 to 2,140 MOAP PSI (Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure), subject to final design. The projected in-service date is August 2027.

That date depends on commission action, final engineering, right-of-way acquisition, environmental and local permitting, construction and safety inspections, the company said. Coastal Connect would need a federal operator ID from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and would fall under the commission’s gas safety rules.

Pipeline Is Only For SpaceX

Two other active Cape rockets burn the same fuel, with more on the way. Blue Origin’s New Glenn at Launch Complex 36 and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan at Space Launch Complex 41 both fly on Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, which run on LNG stored in tanks at their pads. Neither company is mentioned in the filings. Additionally, Relativity Space and others are nearing the first launches of their new methalox-based rockets, something that will only add to the current demand for LNG at the Cape. The petition argues instead that a dedicated SpaceX line would keep the company’s demand off existing pipelines in what it calls a capacity-constrained part of the state.

Current Situation

SpaceX trucks in all of the natural gas it uses at the Cape as liquefied natural gas, according to the filings. That means hundreds of truckloads of LNG will be required per Starship launch from the Cape. The company expects those volumes to keep climbing with more launches and larger vehicles.

The petition calls trucking an inefficient long-term solution, though it says the deliveries are made safely and under state and federal rules. A pipeline would deliver gas in its gaseous state, which SpaceX would then liquefy for use as rocket fuel.

No local gas utility serves SpaceX’s facilities at the Cape. The only existing pipeline to the spaceport belongs to Florida City Gas, and the filings describe it as small, more than a mile from where SpaceX needs gas and without the needed capacity. SpaceX studied expanding that line but found the terms, timing and cost did not meet its needs.

The filings do not name a rocket. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy burn kerosene for their fuel, while its methane-fueled Starship is slated to fly from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center and Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company is taking a similar approach in Texas, where Reuters reported it plans an 8-mile pipeline called Starpipe to serve Starbase.

Because the line is shorter than 100 miles and stays within one county, the company says it falls outside Florida’s Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline Siting Act. As a pipeline wholly inside Florida with state-regulated rates, it would also operate outside Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction. The filings do not identify where the gas would be delivered on the Cape; that section of the SpaceX agreement is redacted.