Satellite pollution creating ‘unregulated geoengineering experiment’
21 May 2026 | ZEROGeoengineering.com | According to researchers, satellite rocket launchings are like small‐scale stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) experiments. Some satellite pollutants include kerosene, black carbon, soot, alumina, oxides of nitrogen, sulfuric compounds, lithium, carbon monoxide, and electromagnetic radiation. It’s important to scrutinize satellite activities due to wide regulatory gaps. Meanwhile, tens of thousands more satellites are projected to be launched in the coming decades.
“The space industry pollution is like a small-scale, unregulated geoengineering experiment that could have many unintended and serious environmental consequences.”
Barker, C. R., Marais, E. A., Tan, E. Y. P., Eastham, S. D., Diskin, G. S., DiGangi, J.P., et al. (2026). Radiative forcing and ozone depletion of a decade of satellite megaconstellation missions. Earth’s Future, 14, e2025EF007229. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF007229
“Unlike surface sources, BC from rockets are released above the tropopause, so behave like potential solar geoengineering strategies: positive instantaneous forcing”
D.M. Murphy, M. Abou-Ghanem, D.J. Cziczo, K.D. Froyd, J. Jacquot, M.J. Lawler, C. Maloney, J.M.C. Plane, M.N. Ross, G.P. Schill, & X. Shen, Metals from spacecraft reentry in stratospheric aerosol particles, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 120 (43) e2313374120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313374120 (2023).
“Here, we show that metals that vaporized during spacecraft reentries can be clearly measured in stratospheric sulfuric acid particles. Over 20 elements from reentry were detected and were present in ratios consistent with alloys used in spacecraft. The mass of lithium, aluminum, copper, and lead from the reentry of spacecraft was found to exceed the cosmic dust influx of those metals.”
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Thanks to SA and MB