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Atmospheric impacts of the space industry require oversight

Nature Geoscience volume 15, pages 598–600 (2022)Cite this article

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Rocket emissions and debris from spacecraft falling out of orbit are having increasingly detrimental effects on global atmospheric chemistry. Improved monitoring and regulation are urgently needed to create an environmentally sustainable space industry.

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Fig. 1: The atmospheric layers from the ground up to the boundary with space, showing natural phenomena, human inputs and resultant impacts.
Fig. 2: A SpaceX rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in the United States of America on 25 June 2019 at 06:30 UTC.

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Author notes

  1. Naomi Hawkins

    Present address: Law School, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Jamie D. Shutler

  2. Environment and Sustainability Institute, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Xiaoyu Yan

  3. British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

    Ingrid Cnossen

  4. Institut für Geophysik und extraterrestrische Physik, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Leonard Schulz & Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier

  5. Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Andrew J. Watson

  6. Lieber Institute and Robotics Research Center, United States Military Academy, West Point, USA

    Hitoshi Nasu

Authors
  1. Jamie D. Shutler
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  6. Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jamie D. Shutler.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Richard H. Moore and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Shutler, J.D., Yan, X., Cnossen, I. et al. Atmospheric impacts of the space industry require oversight. Nat. Geosci. 15, 598–600 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01001-5

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