When rocket launches are scrubbed at the last minute, what happens to the fuel? Is it offloaded into the storage tanks or vented into surrounding air?
In: Engineering
I assume you use fule and oxidizer because a rocket carries both. The oxidizer is often liquid oxygen but it is alternative like red fuming nitric acid used in some rockets.
If it is not cryogenic fuels (stuff you coll down) you just pump it back to the tank with no loss. A lot of rockets have RP-1 as the fuel that is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, so just pump it back.
If it is cryogenic you still pump it back but because it is hard to keep cool some of it will evaporate. You, for example, lose less liquid oxygen then liquid hydrogen.
The storage tanks is the same tanks that held it before you put it in the rocket.
It’s *never* released into the environment intentionally. It’s pretty much always pumped back into tanks that initially fueled the rocket unless the launch scrub was some non-mechanical reason (like weather) and another attempt will be made soon.
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