the age.com.auA paper published this month in Nature warns that once rates of orbital launches reach 2000 a year, the current healing of the ozone layer will slow, particularly over Antarctica.
To calculate the potential impact of future launches, scientists built a database of ozone-depleting chemicals emitted by rockets currently in use and fed the information into a model of Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
They found that with around 2000 launches per year the ozone layer would thin by up to 3 per cent, with a higher rate of loss over Antarctica.
