Rocket

As private companies make spaceflight routine, Earth’s upper atmosphere has become a testing ground with each launch leaving residues that react with ozone, thinning the layer that shields life below. It’s a problem scientists are just beginning to quantify.

Sandia National Laboratories is up to big things. After having recently replicated the energy found around black holes, the facility has just delivered proof of concept for a method of testing rocket parts using a 60-foot-long (18 m) compressed nitrogen gun that makes the process greener and safer.

In pictures: the ringed clouds at the edge of space, a result of NASA's ATREX mission.

A new process cleans wastewater sludge by creating nitrous oxide and methane gas, which are then used to power the treatment plant.