Rocket reentries are leaving measurable lithium pollution in the upper atmosphere

[GyozaJoe]

I think Californians already have enough Lithium in their diet.

 

[PurpaFur]

I believe they're referring to launch 438, on Feb 18 -- the reentry actually occurred early morning Feb 19 by European (UTC) time. Here's a link to an article describing the failure:

Propellant leak blamed for Falcon 9 upper stage uncontrolled reentry

SpaceX said that a Falcon 9 upper stage that reentered over Europe earlier this week suffered a propellant leak that prevented a controlled reentry.

spacenews.com

Ah, so the part the article got wrong was that it wasn't a booster, but rather an upper stage. Thanks for the clarification!

Come on TechSpot, you can do better than this.