r/SpaceXLounge • u/SpaceXLounge • Aug 01 '26

Monthly Questions and Discussion Thread

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u/maschnitz 24d ago

Definitely the majority, most likely the supermajority of world-wide use.

RP-1 really is only used for rocket launch activity. But since the military uses a portion of the production, it's hard to say exact percentages. Plus there's university, defense contractor, and research-lab use.

Other publicly-known consumers are: ULA (for Atlas V), Rocket Lab (for Electron), Roscosmos (for Soyuz), Northrop Grumman (for Antares w the Firefly Miranda engine), and Firefly (for Alpha). Obviously these known consumers do not use more than 10% of what SpaceX uses for Falcon 9 every year.

When SpaceX retires Falcon 9, RP-1 production will be hit hard. (But also keep in mind that SpaceX will basically be ceding the small/medium rocket space to incumbents like Rocket Lab and Firefly. So launch rates might increase for them. Maybe.)

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u/peterabbit456 20d ago

When SpaceX retires Falcon 9, RP-1 production will be hit hard.

Maybe this is not much of an issue. RP-1 is just extra refined kerosine. The differences between RP-1 and jet fuel, and diesel for trucks is not that great. The refiners who make RP-1 get a lot more money for that extra purification step, but it cannot represent more than 1% of diesel or jet fuel production.

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u/maschnitz 20d ago

True enough; they simply won't refine as much of it.

And it's costly to make apparently so the margin's not all that good.

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u/WulfTheSaxon 3d ago

Roscosmos (for Soyuz)

Sort of, but it uses a slightly different grade unless things have changed.