Debbie,

I’m pretty sure that liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen do NOT qualify as “hypergolic” – there IS an ignition source req uired to ‘start’ those engines (watch the next launch, and you’ll see the ‘sparklers&# 8217; going of just before main engine ignition).

With slightly clenched teeth, I’ll copy the link below

http://e n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic

to the Wikipedia entry – there is a nice list (brief) of common hypergolic mixtures, plus some good history (if the writer knew what they w ere talking about, which is the caveat that always applies to Wiki entries̷ 0;)

Bradley K. Norwood, PhD

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