There's no way to make space travel good for planet Earth right now: A single passenger aboard a rocket is responsible for 100 times more pollution than an airline passenger
paceX has never been reluctant to brag, especially when it comes to its celebrated Falcon 9 rocket. Since 2010, asworkhorse of the current global space fleet. So what’s not to like? Plenty, actually—at least if you care about the environment.
The Falcon 9 uses a fuel mixture of liquid oxygen and simple kerosene, and while the oxygen does not do any harm to the skies, the black soot created by the burning kerosene is injected directly into the stratosphere—the layer of air ranging from 12 km to 50 km above the Earth. There the soot lingers for
, absorbing heat, contributing to climate change, and damaging the ozone layer, which exposes the planet to dangerous ultraviolet radiation. And SpaceX is not remotely alone.by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , global rocket launches inject about 1,000 tons of soot into the upper atmosphere per year. That will only get worse, NOAA warns, as the industry continues to expand.
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