Matt Whiting writes:

David Dyer-Bennet wrote:

Matt Whiting writes:

If that is the case, then I'm about 99% certain that the above is
urban legend as the shuttle carries its own oxidizer for its fuel.
You don't see air intakes anywhere on the shuttle do you? I really
doubt it depletes the atmosphere of oxygen in any significant way.
The shuttle certainly doesn't burn atmospheric oxygen, no. On the
other hand, it produces high volumes of combustion products, and I
wouldn't be shocked to discover the reaction hasn't gone to
completion, and the stuff left reacts with the air in some way or
other. Or at least, I'd want expert advice before I walked into a
cloud of
the stuff :-).

Oh, no doubt. But at the speed an SR-71 flies, it would spend at most
a few milliseconds in the exhaust remnants of the shuttle. I find it
very hard to believe that this would bring down an SR-71. It'll be
curious to see what Jay finds out when he asks the expert.

I don't really give much credit to the SR-71 story, but it's not my
field of expertise so I'm not confident my opinion is right
particularly. I was just pointing out that the shuttle could affect
the atmosphere in ways other than burning atmospheric oxygen.
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