Environmental Impact
- There are currently about 9,100 active payloads in Earth’s orbit, 26,000 space debris larger than 10 cm and millions of smaller pieces (1 cm or greater in diameter.) The debris is increasingly likely to trigger the Kessler effect – a chain reaction in which collisions create more debris and eventually render low-Earth orbit unusable.
- A satellite collision in 2009 produced more than 2,000 pieces of traceable debris. Ozone layer destruction: Chlorine gas released from solid rocket fuels (such as chlorinated APCP) can cause ozone depletion. Some scholars believe that the continued increase in rocket launches and the continued use of solid rocket fuels will in the future offset the efforts to repair ozone layer since the Montreal Protocol.
- If a crewed rocket were launched 1,000 times a year for space tourism, its release of hydrocarbon-based HRE would cause ozone loss of up to 6% in the polar regions.