The good news: they'll explode! The bad news: they might not be the prettiest fireworks ever. Launching fireworks in a near-zero-oxygen environment is completely feasible.
The trouble would come after launch, when the bursting charge releases and ignites the colorant pellets. The reaction that imparts a rocket's metals and metal salts with enough energy to change pretty colors requires oxygen. There may be some color in the initial explosion, but it wouldn't be half as spectacular as what you see on the Fourth of July.
2 comment(s):
Actually the oxygen for the reaction in most of the 'colorant pellets' (properly called stars) does not come from the atmosphere. They are formulated with their own oxidizer and would probably work find in the vacuum of space.
I hoped that the article would have also covered the effects that would happen in case of Space-War-SCIFI movies..
No sound, different lighter flames, no rising fireballs, and longer lasting glowing debris...
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