A Critical Review of Ecological and Environmental Degradation Surrounding the World's Rocket Launching Stations

Vijayalaxmi Rajiv Shinde; Adv. Rajiv Ambadas Shinde

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84977

A Critical Review of Ecological and Environmental Degradation Surrounding the World's Rocket Launching Stations

Author(s)	Prof. Dr. Vijayalaxmi Rajiv Shinde, Mr. Adv. Rajiv Ambadas Shinde
Country	India
Abstract	The re-acceleration of launch activity since 2018 has revived an empirical question long dormant in environmental science: what is the cumulative ecological and atmospheric footprint of the world's rocket launching stations, and how should it be conceptualized within the disciplinary vocabulary of environmental science, conservation biology, acoustic ecology, atmospheric chemistry, and space law? This paper conducts a critical literature review of primary research, government assessments, and peer-reviewed studies from 2008 to 2026 on the environmental degradation produced by rocket launching stations globally. Anchored in the empirical evidence assembled by Ang et al. showing that "over 62% of operating sites are located within or near protected areas" (Ang et al., 2024), by Ryan et al. showing rocket-emissions black-carbon radiative forcing on the order of "8 mW m⁻² after just 3 years of routine space tourism launches" representing "a much greater contribution to global radiative forcing (6%) than emissions (0.02%) of all other BC sources" (Ryan et al., 2022), and by Polyakov et al. demonstrating "alerting chronic non-carcinogenic risks of respiratory diseases (up to 5.9 HI) and the blood system (up to 4.1 HI)" in populations surrounding the Vostochny Cosmodrome (Polyakov et al., 2024a, 2024b), the review catalogues the multi-vector footprint of contemporary launch activity and identifies four integrated findings: (i) the global launch complex is geographically embedded in ecologically rich regions, with more than 62% of sites within or adjacent to protected areas (Ang et al., 2024); (ii) stratospheric atmospheric chemistry is the dominant planetary-scale concern, with rocket black carbon producing radiative-forcing-per-unit-mass ratios "approximately 500 times more than surface and aviation sources" (Ryan et al., 2022) and risks to Antarctic ozone recovery of "3.9% in springtime" under ambitious launch scenarios (Revell et al., 2025); (iii) local ecological harms are documented across soil chemistry, biodiversity, acoustic ecology, and human health in operational launch regions from Kazakhstan to Florida to Hainan; and (iv) the regulatory framework systematically underestimates cumulative ecological risk, with the result that environmental harm at rocket launching stations constitutes a risk-society phenomenon in Ulrich Beck's precise sense (Beck, 2008). The review concludes by identifying methodological and governance gaps that future research and policy must address if the global launch complex's ecological footprint is to be reconciled with planetary sustainability commitments.
Keywords	rocket launching stations; black carbon; stratospheric ozone; ecological degradation; light pollution; acoustic ecology; conservation biology; space sustainability; environmental risk
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-01
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84977

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A Critical Review of Ecological and Environmental Degradation Surrounding the World's Rocket Launching Stations

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