Comment Re:Liquid hydrogen [Re:A sad day] (Score 1) 176
Nevertheless, hydrogen fuel is routine in spaceflight.
Propellant leaks are a problem to be dealt with in all fuel types; not just hydrogen. Liquid oxygen: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspacenews.com%2Fpropella... Kerosene: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F202... Methane: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F202... Hydrazine: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.teslarati.com%2Fspac...
True, you can always have leaks, but hydrogen leaks seem to be way, way more common than leaks of other fuels as a percentage of launch attempts. The shuttle was scrubbed on average almost once per launch, and a large percentage of the scrubs were caused by hydrogen leaks (source).
And that's on top of the whole embrittlement problem, which can lead to catastrophic hardware failures if you're reusing parts over a long period of time, which is another reason why folks trying to do reusable rockets (e.g. SpaceX) tend to avoid it. And if you think embrittlement is a risk in something that gets used once, imagine the effect on fuel lines in cars that are pressurized for decades at a time.
It is a really, really nasty fuel, IMO. Mind you, hydrazine is worse in some ways, but that doesn't mean hydrogen isn't nasty.