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·
      6 months 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·
        6 months 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.