Is space travel bad for the environment?
first of all the main engines of the space shuttle burn Hydrogen so all that is formed is H20 so no pollution there, however forming hydrogen takes a good deal of energy to create as no elemental hydrogen exists on earth (begs the question what is up with hydrogen cars) so yes there is net pollution from the main engines the SRBs do give off a good amount of pollution too as for when they are in space they dont release anything i dont thing and nothing toxic, maybe a bit of urine or paint flecks but there is such a little bit of it its inconsequntial
Rockets are large, but space launches aren’t nearly as frequent and widespread as jet and car travel. There are tens of thousands of jets in the air at any given time, but a space launch happens around the world only once every few days. Above the atmosphere, exhaust particles gradually fall down to the earth and burn up in the atmosphere. One potential danger is that a rocket will break up during launch or fall back down from orbit and spread toxic debris. This has happened a few times; a Russian satellite crashed in Canada in the late 1970’s and released some of its fuel, and the shuttle broke up a few years ago and left debris over Texas and Louisiana that NASA warned was potentially toxic. But these events are rare compared to disasters with oil tankers, industrial leaks, etc. The second danger is that pieces of a rocket or satellite will stay in orbit after an explosion or impact test. This breaks an object into thousands of little pieces, some of which may stay in orbit around th
