Launchpad, Mark Zuckerberg's megayacht that pollutes as much as 630 cars

Mark Zuckerberg recently showed off his luxurious new 387-foot-long super yacht. It is a massive, first-class vessel that only the richest people on the planet could ever think to own. Despite his activism in favor of ecological sustainability, the founder of Facebook does not hold back on fuel for his yacht.

Last March, the gigantic ship he christened "Launchpad" was seen docking at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. At the beginning of the same month he was in Gibraltar, a British port on the Iberian Peninsula. Launchpad has a total length of 387 feet and a beam of 51 feet.

Its construction was completed in 2024 and it was given to Mark Zuckerberg as a gift for his 40th birthday. According to The New York Post, its purchase price was $300 million. The boat is the work of the Dutch company Feadship and is one of the 50 largest boats of its type in the world.

It has a luxurious interior infrastructure, designed by Zuretti, as well as an exterior made mostly of aluminum, glass and steel. It has a heliport on its deck. According to the data available about the vessel, it has capacity for at least 24 guests, not counting the crew of 48 workers and sailors who operate the luxury vessel. The cost of its maintenance amounts to $30 million annually.

Four diesel engines

To navigate the seas, Launchpad has four MTU Diesel Engines 20V 4000 M93L engines, made by MTU, which is part of the Rolls-Royce group. These high-capacity engines are what power the two propellers of the boat.

According to the technical details offered by MTU on its website about the 20V 4000 M93L, these motors are capable of rotating at 2100 revolutions per minute and creating a power of 4,300 kW, but not without costs. MTU estimates that roughly 291 gallons of diesel fuel per hour are needed to power just one of its 20V 4000 M93L engines. Zuckerberg's ship has four of these. On waters without adverse weather and at a cruising speed of 16 knots, the estimated diesel consumption rises to 1,165 gallons of diesel per hour of navigation.

Voz Media, with the help of artificial intelligence, calculated the power necessary for a boat like Launchpad to set sail in adverse weather conditions, as during a slight storm or with intermediate waves. To do this, an equation was made to calculate the resistance force that a storm should exert against a vessel sailing on the high seas, estimated through various factors with the help of artificial intelligence.

The calculations detail that around 188 gallons of additional fuel would be necessary. Therefore, with a minimal storm, Zuckerberg's Launchpad would use 1,353 gallons of diesel per hour to navigate at a speed of 16 knots.

As much pollution as 630 family cars

According to the data offered by Spanish oil company Repsol through its web portal, a compact vehicle for urban use uses about 1.8 gallons of fuel for every 60 miles traveled in an hour. In the same time, Zuckerberg's yacht would have traveled only 15 miles at its cruising speed. However, its fuel consumption would be equivalent to that of 630 family cars.

Compared to city buses, a mode of transport highly recommended by environmental activists to reduce the carbon footprint of cities, one hour on a yacht is equivalent to what is needed to move 73 buses in the same time.

Regarding carbon emissions, which environmentalists claim are so harmful, Zuckerberg's footprint is terrible. The 20V 4000 M93L engines have an IMO II/EPA 2 type approved exhaust emissions optimizer. With these optimizers, the estimated C02 pollution is 39.9 tons every hour the yacht moves at cruising speed. Without environmental optimizers, pollution would be 44.3 tons of CO2 per hour.