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Why do rockets vent gas before launch?
The gaseous oxygen is dumped to prevent a pressure buildup inside the tank. The liquid hydrogen also vents as its temperature increases above minus-423 degrees F, but the gaseous fuel is carried away from the rocket before being cast aside.
What is the white cloud around a rocket?
The white gas you see is condensed water vapour (not byproduct of combustion process) as it condenses around the cryogenic fuel oxygen & hydrogen (escaped to release high pressure ), which are still extremely cold despite being in gaseous form.
Do rockets leave a smoke trail in space?
When rockets launch, they leave behind a trail of hot exhaust, also called a plume. Falcon 9 rockets can send payloads more than 250 miles above Earth, beyond the edge of space and where the space station orbits our planet.
Why is rocket smoke white?
When you view a Space Shuttle launch on television, the white smoke filling the air is really steam from those millions of gallons of water evaporating. The actual exhaust smoke from the solid rocket motors goes out the other end of the launch pad through the Flame Deflector System.
What is lox venting?
The “venting” you usually see isn’t LOX, it’s condensed water vapor, there are small bleeder valves in the LOX tanks and the fuel line but they are not designed or used for emergency pressure relief. Boiled-off oxygen is vented, and it’s cold enough to cause the water vapor in the surrounding air to condense.
Do spaceships leave a trail in space?
Yes, they leave trailed both going up and going back down. Rockets launched to space usually are fuelled by either a H2/O2 or CH4/O2 mix. This leaves behind mostly water vapour as a waste product, that takes the form of billowing white clouds, immediately after burning that dissipated a while after the rocket has gone.
Do missiles make contrails?
Missiles and rockets produce smoke plumes as a result of the solid fuel burning. The hot gases escaping from the motor can also create contrails, but the smoke and contrail combine to form a single exhaust plume.
Why does Starship vent?
The engines throttled to decelerate the starship at the correct rate as it slowly descended on the landing pad with its landing legs deployed. After Starship was on the pad, the vehicle began to depressurize by venting as a step toward making the vehicle safe for recovery personnel approach.