The Environmental Impacts of Space Flight

Welcome to The Environmental Impact of Space Flight.

It’s just over 60 years since the launch of Sputnik 1. In that time, space has had an immense impact on society and economic development. Over, 14,000 objects have been launched into space since 1957 – nearly 8,000 of them in the last 10 years. It’s suggested that the total number of objects launched could double again in the next 10 years.

The first human spaceflight was in 1961 and, since then, there has been nearly 1,300 human trips into space, and now human missions to the Moon are being planned, and even to Mars.

Spaceflight is of increasing importance, but its environmental impact is relatively high. A number of different fuels are used to launch a spacecraft, and these have a variety of impacts on the environment and, in particular, on the upper atmosphere. There are fears that space activity could soon start to have a serious impact on global warming and on the depletion of the ozone layer.

This course is about the history of space travel and its environmental impacts. We explore the different rocket systems that have been used over the years, and the fuels they use. There have been some attempts to use more environmentally friendly fuels in the last few years – but will it be enough?

This course will help you understand the scale of space travel and its wider impact on the environment. I hope you enjoy it.