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 |  | Military Develops Safer Rocket Fuel
By Daniel Sorid
Staff Writer
posted: 12:52 pm ET
29 February 2000
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Military Develops Safer Rocket Fuel
A new rocket fuel developed by the U.S. military that is carcinogen-free could make launching satellites a safer activity.
The Army has announced the development of a new fuel that may be able to replace a cancer-causing fuel, Aerozine 50, that is used for launching satellites.
| Safer Fuel Firing | 
The army test fires its new, safer fuel. Want to learn more about rocket fuel? |
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NASA and the U.S. Air Force are also considering using this new fuel, called CINCH (Competitive Impulse Non-Carcinogenic Hypergol).
Certain types of very reactive fuels contain carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, which require very careful and costly handling. Darren Thompson, an aviation and missile command chemical engineer at the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, said this new fuel could help.
"This is a problem because we have to spend more resources to handle the materials [due to their] long-term effects," Thompson said. "Certainly, if we could make it non-carcinogenic, that would make our lives a whole lot easier."
Thompson, who helped develop CINCH, said the fuel was designed to have a low freezing point to allow it to flow as a liquid in extreme environments.
NASA and the Air Force are considering using the fuel as a propellant in satellite launch vehicles.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has conducted a preliminary test of CINCH, and demonstrations at Edwards Air Force Base are planned.
Thompson says the fuel could be used in Army weapons systems in three to five years.
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