Wiktionary
a. Of fuel or propellant, igniting spontaneously on contact with an oxidiser.
Usage examples of "hypergolic".
To be able to observe the entry of both rockets into the atmosphere, sodium and technetium had been added to their hypergolic fuel: the first colored the exhaust flame a bright yellow, the second tagged it with a spectral line not found in the spectra of the local sun or the Quintan orbiters.
The ground crew returned to their pumps and to their stations and to their work, defueling the gigantic rocket, pumping the nitrous oxide and hypergolic fuels into holding tanks.
Cadillac on the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier, there was instant hypergolic chemistry.
We went to work on the tunnels, pouring a whole drumful of one chemical down one hatch and then tipping over its hypergolic counterpart and moving out of the way—fast!
The Apollo spacecraft's reaction control system also ruptured, and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred.