Scientists sound alarm over space launches becoming environmental threat

Scientists have raised concerns on the growing menace of air pollution caused by the space launches.

Prof Eloise Marais and his team from the University College London started their research over space activities in 2020. According to data collected by the team, the year 2024 has witnessed 259 rocket launches.

In 2023, 223 space rockets were launched. These launches burned more than 153,000 tonnes of fuel.

According to Marais, “More pollutants are being released into the atmosphere from rockets and satellites than ever before. We’re in uncharted territory, as humans have never added this much pollution to the upper layers of the atmosphere. If left unregulated, it may have serious impacts on Earth’s atmosphere.”

The findings also shed light on the potential impact of mega-constellation communication satellites, including Starlink, Thousand Sails, and OneWeb, leading to threefold increase in the emissions of CO2 and climate-altering soot.

Although the space industry is not a big contributor in emissions, the researchers have warned of the enduring impacts of missions. The particles emitted from space rockets stay in the upper atmosphere much longer than Earth-related sources.

Consequently, it causes up to 500 times greater climate warming than the same amount of soot from aviation and ground sources.

Dr Connor Barker from UCL said: “Many more mega-constellations are planned for launch in the next few decades, which will have significant impacts for our climate, and undo progress made by the Montreal protocol to repair the ozone layer.”

In recent times, the world has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of space objects being launched in space as compared to late 1960s and 2016, when only 100 to 200 objects were launched into space.