A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

 Photo credit: Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum

In Central Asia, an ornately splendid mountain range, named Altai Mountains, is embossed with high snow packed mounts, rich high forests and the valleys covered with beautiful glaciers and lakes. Various ethnic tribes are residing here leading a quiet and contented life shepherding buffaloes and sheep, growing grains, and raising bees. But this is also the place where the skyrockets shatter the rubble.A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

Flight path of rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Kazakhstan, the Baikonur Cosmodrome is the busiest and the largest spaceport of the world. The Altai range of mountains lies under the flight path of the spaceport. Whenever the Cosmodrome launches any space rocket, the fuel tanks, booster rockets and other rubble is dumped into the hills that lead the junk to spook the residents, wrecks the houses and sometimes kill the livestock. Sometimes, in case of the huge loss, the Russian space agency must compensate the residents in form of money or other things.

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

As per the estimates of the Russian media, since 1950 when the spaceport became operational, more than 2500 tons of rocket trash has been crashed down to earth. The officers of the Russian space agency warn the residents at least one day before the launch of each craft, so that they may use the necessary measures to escape from any accident. A specific belt to the area under the space path of the rockets has been selected where the trash may fall, but still the rubbles falling outside the belt is quite common.

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

All through the era of Soviet Union, the trash of the booster rockets was being recovered, by hook or by crook. The agency was afraid of losing the secrets of the rockets and capabilities of agency. But when the Great Russia came into existence, no efforts are being made to collect the leftovers. Even the parts of the rockets now fall across thousand kilometers of the Altai mountains, and remains uncollected.

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

 Photo credit: Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum

Kazakhstan emerged a new scrap economy on this elapsed space unwanted items after breaking up from the Soviet Union. The dealers of the scrap wait for the launch and trash afterwards. They even use the binoculars to see in the sky and then ride on their wagons with equipment like blowtorches to collect the whole scrap and use it for various purposes. They separate the alloys of aluminum, titanium and copper wires from the scrap and sell them. They leftovers are used to build roofs, toilets and shades.

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

Photo credit: Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum 

However, the specialists and the medical researchers do not announce the material, specially the fuel left in the engines, safe for the health of the inhabitants. The cases of cancer and birth effects have been witnessed in the region, which may be the result of Hydrazine that leaks from the rocket engines when they crash on earth.

A Mountain serving as Space Junk Litters

Photo credit: Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum

The issue of discarding the fuel tanks from the space agency into the populated areas is not prevailing in Russia only. China also has their site to launch the rockets far away from the sea which causes the rockets to crash in populated areas, which clearly means, huge damage. The problem may be solved by launching the rockets near to sea, and dropping the junks into sea may cause comparatively very little damage.

The problem with discarded fuel tanks is not unique to Russia. Like Baikonur, China’s launch sites are also located far from the ocean and rocket parts containing unburnt fuel fall over populated areas. Launch sites near the ocean don’t have this problem because they can drop their boosters relatively harmlessly into the sea.