The Shuttle induced background - Gaseous constituents

The gaseous environment around the Shuttle was evaluated by several instruments flown on many Shuttle flights. The major contaminant turned out to be water vapor. The rear thrusters are a major transitory source of water, N2 and/or CO, and possibly NO. Since effluent fluxes are scattered from the atmosphere into instrument faces, the angle of attack is an important variable in the flux levels.