Located beneath the flight path of the Baikonur Spaceport, the Altai Mountains frequently experience rocket debris falling after each launch.
The Altai Mountains in Central Asia are sparsely populated, home to various ethnic minority tribes that specialize in herding sheep, raising cattle, beekeeping, and cultivating grains and legumes. However, the tranquility of this region is often disrupted by rocket parts falling from the sky, according to Amusing Planet.
Villagers collecting debris from a fallen spacecraft. (Photo: Amusing Planet).
The Altai region lies directly below the flight path of the Baikonur Spaceport, the largest and busiest spaceport in the world, located in Kazakhstan. Each time a rocket is launched from Baikonur, discarded fuel tanks, empty boosters, and various other debris plummet down onto the remote hillsides, causing panic among residents, damaging homes, and killing livestock. The Russian space agency frequently has to compensate villagers for significant property losses.
It is estimated that since the spaceport began operations in the 1950s, over 2,500 tons of rocket debris have fallen to Earth. Residents are warned 24 hours prior to each launch so they can find safe shelter. Most debris falls within a designated strip directly beneath the rocket’s flight path, but debris falling outside this area has also been recorded. In 2008, a 3-meter long metal block fell on a village, narrowly missing a house.
Failed launches or explosions can have far more severe consequences. In 2011, an unmanned Soyuz-U rocket heading to the International Space Station (ISS) malfunctioned just minutes after launch and fell back to Earth with a full fuel tank. It landed in the Altai Mountains and exploded, shattering windows up to 100 km away.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the space agency ceased to collect scattered rocket debris across thousands of square kilometers of the Kazakh steppe and the Altai Mountains. Within a few years of Kazakhstan’s independence, a new economy emerged around the forgotten space debris. Scrap metal dealers eagerly awaited each rocket launch and monitored falling debris with binoculars. They would then ride horses to the debris fields. Any valuable materials such as titanium and aluminum alloys, as well as copper wire, were stripped from the wreckage. Anything that could not be sold would be brought back to the village, used for roofing chicken coops, barns, toilets, and even sleds for children.
However, this rocket debris is not safe. Rocket fuel, particularly asymmetric dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), is extremely toxic, and discarded fuel tanks can still contain up to 10% of leftover fuel when detached from the rocket. Hydrazine readily dissolves in water, making it easy to seep into the soil, contaminating groundwater used for drinking and irrigation. Hydrazine is also a well-known carcinogen. The compound is thought to be responsible for increased cancer and birth defect rates in the Altai region. Many researchers indicate that hydrazine is also toxic to the liver and central nervous system, causing irreparable neurological damage.
In recent years, non-toxic and environmentally friendly rocket propellants have garnered increasing attention. These fuels are safer and easier to handle, requiring less processing and infrastructure for storage and transport. Many agencies, such as NASA and ESA, have significantly reduced their use of hydrazine-based propellants.
