this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/15755274

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[โ€“] facepainter@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

It has nothing to do with science, it's Engineering.

The upper stage exploding is of course not ideal, but it does so on a suborbital trajectory, meaning everything will fall back down to Earth, into the ocean. (these still being test-launches with certain risks is the whole reason they're choosing not to go fully orbital yet)

In terms of materials, it's mostly just stainless steel, there is no pollution from it.