Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion A rocket stage test firing by Chinese commercial company Space Pioneer ended in catastrophic failure and a dramatic explosion Sunday.
  • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksMEnglish
    4·
    4 days ago

    rocket fuel, which isn’t great for pretty much anything alive

    Depends on the rocket fuel.

    • Methalox: Harmless gases. Methane is a greenhouse gas, but it’s not toxic. Basically like a bunch of cows burping.
    • Kerolox: Kerosene is an oily liquid, so not great for the environment, but not highly toxic.
    • Hypergolics: Hydrazine derivatives and nitrogen tetroxide are both highly toxic.

    The Tianlong-3 in this article uses kerolox. The Long March 2C booster which fell near a village last week uses hypergols.

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, primarily hypergolics are the fun ones. I didn’t hear about the booster that fell near a village recently, but there was one that I think had an emergency dump over some village or town a few years ago.