Booting Russia from Baikonur would be unwise: ecologist

Head of Kazakhstan's Tabigat ecological union Mels Yeleussizov is against closure of Baikonur cosmodrome, Tengrinews.kz reports. However, the ecologist believes that scientists should resume the work on development of environmentally-friendly hydrogen fuel for rockets. Rockets using different types of fuel are launched from Baikonur, he said. Heptyl-containing fuel is the most toxic of all the rocket fuels. This is the fuel used in Proton-M carrier rocket that crashed right after the take off at Kazakhstan-based Baikonur cosmodrome on July 2. The ecologist confirmed that heptyl is an extremely toxic substance: one gram can pollute 1 cubic kilometer of air and soil. They have to resume working on development of a hydrogen-based rocket fuel. “This is the cleanest and the most advanced fuel, though it is explosive. But even cars are now using hydrogen fuel. Oxidizing, hydrogen generates a huge amount of heat and forms water vapor H2O. This is water, the cleanest water. There is no better fuel,” Yeleussizov said. The recent crash of Proton is an individual incident that should not become the basis for closing of the cosmodrome. Investigation showed that the rocket crashed because of improper connection of angle speed sensors. “We should observe all the rules. Proton is a very good rocket. Clearly, the crash was caused by slovenliness. Most of the rocket fuel burnt down this time. Booting Russians out of Kazakhstan and closing the rocket complex would be stupid. Enormous amounts of money were spent to create it. We just have to develop science,” Yeleussizov said. There is no better place for rocket launches in Kazakhstan and CIS than Baikonur, he added, saying that every corner of the huge Soviet Union was checked for compliance with rocket launching requirements before the decision was made to construct the cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.