Don’t Worry Just Yet
Don’t Worry Just Yet The British science journal, Nature, posted an article entitled, “Space tourism to accelerate climate change,” On October 22, 2010, at the URL http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101022/full/news.2010.558.html They cited some preliminary research suggesting that a thousand commercial space launches, particularly those such as Virgin Galactic that burn a rubber-like propellant, might put soot in the upper atmosphere and cause significant global warming. I have a little historical note. Roughly thirty-five years ago, there were environmental concerns about hundreds or even thousands of flights by the Space Shuttle fleet. Ammonium perchlorate in the solid rocket boosters put a sizable amount of chlorine ions into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during each launch. However, the number of flights never went into even dozens per year. Considering that history, I suggest that it's premature to worry about the Rutan-Branson space plane. When, and if,