[robotresearcher]

> no carbon dioxide is emitted during the launch or into the atmosphere

It takes a lot of energy to capture that hydrogen and oxygen beforehand. The same energy that the rocket releases, plus losses due to process inefficiencies.

Maybe they take pains to use only renewables. If not, they likely emitted plenty of CO2 in advance of the launch.

[roughly]

It’s worth noting and celebrating when we can do something like power a rocket without having carbon emissions intrinsic to that process.

It’s the same argument against electric cars - “oh, well the electricity might be made in a coal plant!” Sure, but we know how to solve _that_ problem, it’s this _other_ one we’ve been trying to figure out.

[boplicity]

It's possible to make zero carbon electrofuels. The question is a matter of excess cost and scalability. Right now the price of "clean hydrogen" is eight times the price of dirty hydrogen. [1]

That's a rather exorbitant difference. Maybe in the future, the difference will be more manageable and scalable. As it stands now, there's a lot of work to do.

Note, this is super important to solve because battery power doesn't work for heavy things, such as large aircraft, shipping vessels, etc.

[1] https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-shot-summit-b...

[NikolaeVarius]

The amount of self-inflated grandstanding on CO2 matters is astonishing.

It took a lot of energy to make the computer you're typing on, shame on you.

[robotresearcher]

That's right, and so does generating the electricity to charge the battery. Which is why I don't have stories written about how no CO2 is released as I use my computer from its charged battery. It'd be fair to scorn me if I did.

BTW, I think it's great that this rocket emits almost nothing but steam at runtime.

[ToJoh]

Yes, let's not miss the real problem with global heating and ecological destruction: all the annoying grandstanding.

Ignore the doomsters and get on with cheering on another celebrity as they blast off into orbit!