[blackdog]

Somethin is fishy here. Hydrazine is Alar, you know the stuff they spray on apples and fruit. It’s used in boiler water treatment and in rocket fuels. It’s not like it’s some rare compound we’re not exposed to already.

[cripplecreek]

I suspect they’re more concerned about some secret spy tech stuff surviving.

[battlecry]

Hydrazine will kill you. It is very reactive and dangerous.
It will corrode your skin or lungs until you die a painful death.

[Tallguy]

Aerospace Corp., a California-based research organization that regularly advises the Defense Department, has assembled some basic data about falling satellites and what can be done about them. "For an orbiting object, shooting it down actually breaks the object into many pieces, some of which could be hazardous to other satellites," says the Aerospace Corp. "Many of the fragments will survive re-entry, but be spread over a much larger area. The pros and cons for a specific case would need to be examined."

Translation: peel us off $10 million & we'll do a quickie 'study' for ya with a really nifty Power Point presentation.

[maquiladora]

I guess it depends on the quantity or concentration. Just like the way there is radioactive material in some smoke alarms, but not enough for a dirty bomb :-)

[poindexter]

Hydrazine is not Alar. A derivative of hydrazine is used to make Alar. Apples and oranges (so to speak).

[mad_as_he$$]

Not to mention airbags in cars. They are protecting the secrets. Makes me think this is not a KH series as was originally thought.

[SJSAMPLE]

I used to work with missiles loaded with Hydrazine (UDMH) and I can verify that Hydrazine can kill you without much work.

However, I believe that there’s a 99.999% chance that it will burn up in the atmosphere.

This sounds like a convenient way to test an ASAT missile.

[Old Professer]

From MSDS for N2H4:

“Potential Acute Health Effects:
Very hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (corrosive), of
eye contact (irritant), of inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator). Liquid or spray mist
may produce tissue damage particularly on mucous membranes of eyes, mouth and respiratory tract. Skin
contact may produce burns. Inhalation of the spray mist may produce severe irritation of respiratory tract,
characterized by coughing, choking, or shortness of breath. Severe over-exposure can result in death.”

[GovernmentShrinker]

???
Hydrazine is basically a little wing of alar, with one of the H atoms lost to the bond with the rest of the alarmolecule. Hydrazine is not alar by a long shot.

Hydrazine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine
chemical formula N2H2

Alar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alar
chemical formula C6H12N2O3