2nd Workshop - Atmospheric Impacts of Spacecraft Launch and Re-entry

Assessment of Emissions of Orbital Launches and Rocket Body Re-Entries 2019-2024

25 Sept 2025, 09:00

20m

Auditorium (ESTEC)

Speaker

Jan-Steffen Fischer (University of Stuttgart, Institute of Space Systems)

Description

Within 2019-2024 the number of successfull orbital launches went from 97 in 2019 to 255 in 2024 (21% p.a.) while the number of rocket stages re-entries went from 77 to 257 (28% p.a.). This growth comes with the risk of unknown effects on climate and ozone.
In order to contribute to a better understanding of the impacts, the University of Stuttgart has used its Open Source codes Launch Emission Assessment Tool (LEAT) and Re-entry Emission Assessment Tool (REAT) to individually calculate the emissions from rocket launches and re-entries of upper stages from 2019-2024 to build up an inventory.
As part of the presentation, this inventory will be presented.
The focus will be on the type and number of different species, including ones which were not previously discussed, and their effects and distribution. The uncertainties that the calculation of emission and these inventories currently have will also be discussed.