SpaceX Starship Flight 7 Explosion Raises Environmental Concerns

The mid-January explosion of SpaceX‘s Starship Flight 7 has sparked discussions regarding its potential environmental impact. The upper stage of the rocket, which weighed about 85 tons with no fuel, exploded at an altitude of about 90 miles (146 kilometers). The debris from the flying spacecraft was said to land over the Caribbean.

It could potentially have to do with the preliminary estimates that the explosion released substantial amounts of metal oxides and nitrogen oxides, pollutants that can be harmful to the Earth’s ozone and will change its atmospheric composition. Scientists are evaluating how much contamination was left behind in the upper atmosphere as a result of the incident.

SpaceX Starship Flight 7 Explosion Raises Environmental Concerns Over Ozone Layer and Atmospheric Impact

In an initial analysis, Connor Barker, an atmospheric chemistry researcher at University College London, approximately 45.5 metric tons of metal oxides and 40 metric tons of nitrogen oxides may have been released into the atmosphere. The amount of metal pollution they produced could be roughly a third of the meteorite material that enters the Earth’s atmosphere each year, Barker wrote. Although these estimates are preliminary, they indicate that the environmental toll could be great.

But Jonathan McDowell, a space debris expert, said that a large part of the spacecraft’s debris presumably splashed into the ocean, which would diminish the potential pollution that could go airborne. Unlike many traditional rocket stages and satellites made using aluminum, Starship‘s construction from stainless steel minimizes the production of aluminum oxides, damaging the ozone layer and atmospheric reflectivity.

As rocket launches and satellite re-entries increase, scientists are increasingly worried about the potential cumulative impacts of these pollutants. Research indicates that the buildup of nitrogen oxides and metal particulates in the mesosphere and upper stratosphere could disrupt climate patterns and hinder the recovery of the ozone layer, which could have long-term effects on Earth’s atmosphere and environment.

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