More rocket launches could slow the ozone hole's recovery

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-10 07:10

Australia; New Zealand; International

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia, New Zealand (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Burning rocket fuel damages the ozone layer, and the burgeoning space industry could make it a lot worse in future. Antarctica, New Zealand, and parts of Australia appear to be the worst off under the 'ambitious' space industry growth scenario modelled by Kiwi researchers. The ozone damage is caused by chlorine and black carbon from propellants used in launches—and the researchers call for restrictions on how often these types of fuel can be used.

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Ozone anomaly map

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Editorial / Opinion The Conversation, Web page Republishable editorial written by the authors

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conference: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Canterbury

Funder: L.E.R. and M.T.B. appreciate support by the Rutherford Discovery Fellowships from New Zealand Government funding, administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi. T.F.M.B. received financial support from the University of Canterbury. S.V. was supported by the ETH Research grant no. ETH-1719-2, by the Harvard Geoengineering Research Programme as well as by the Simons Foundation (grant no. SFI-MPS-SRM-00005217). T.S. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 200020-182239), the Karbacher Fonds, Graubünden, and the Simons Foundation (SFI-MPS-SRM-00005208). J.D. was supported by NASA grant 80NSSC23K1001. E.R. was partly supported by Saint-Petersburg State University (research project 124032000025-1). Simulations were performed at the ETH cluster EULER and Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) under project s1191. M.T.B. appreciates discussions with the IAU CPS.

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