The environment suffered a major impact when multi-ton spacecraft explode during flight test. On January 16 SpaceX Starship experienced an unexpected rapid disassembly during its seventh orbital flight test. During an ascent burn after booster separation control lost contact with the vehicle which then exploded approximately eight and a half minutes into the launch.
The upper stage explosion of SpaceX caused debris to fall across the Caribbean, leading a scientist to warn about significant amount of atmospheric pollution caused by this event.
University College London researcher Connor Barker estimated that the event discharged 45.5 tonnes of metal oxides with 40 tonnes of reactive nitrogen into upper atmospheric layers.
These pollutants, particularly aluminum oxides, have been linked to potential ozone depletion and even a weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field. Barker calculated that aluminum entries from meteors throughout the year total 100 tons yet this single event added 35 percent to that quantity.
According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell “many tons” of debris from the space explosion ended up in the ocean instead of burning up during atmospheric reentry. Other objects like rocket debris that did not gracefully descend into the ocean, landed in residential areas on the neighboring island.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has claimed that the propellant leakage is the likely cause of the incident, while a official investigation is still on going.
This incident stands as one among numerous occurrences. The Starlink program of SpaceX includes thousands of satellites which burn up in atmospheric layers while producing pollution. Since the start of the space age the space industry has raised atmospheric metallic particle levels noticeably.
Reference- Space.com, Futurism, CBS News, The Verge, SpaceX website