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To-orbit propellants are never toxic unless you consider kerosene toxic. You may be thinking of e.g. hydrazine which is used in orbital thrusters. There probabl
by dreamcompiler 7y ago
To-orbit propellants are never toxic unless you consider kerosene toxic. You may be thinking of e.g. hydrazine which is used in orbital thrusters. There probably is some of this on board, but rockets are always launched such that whatever is along the launch path is ocean or unpopulated area. Debris will sink or won't require much cleanup.
Deep space probes (which this is not) require a lot more prep since they contain radioactive materials on board.
- rbanffy 7y agoA lot of orbital rockets use hydrazine and UDMH in their first stages. Titan (prior to IV, IIRC), Long March, Proton and Tsyklon.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoGood point. These are all ICBM-derived rockets that used toxic hypergolic propellants so they could be stored for long periods and launched very quickly. (All hypergolic propellants are nasty things you don't want to get close to.) The only US rocket on your list is the Titan and it's been retired. AFAIK no current US rockets for routine civilian or commercial use have hypergolic first stage propellants; long storage and quick launch are not required for these rockets.* Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about that. *Outside the US hypergolic propellants are still used anyway. Apparently the Long March and Proton-M are in this category.