Chinese Rocket Breaks Up in Orbit, Leaves Dangerous Trail of Debris in Space

More than 50 pieces of space debris have been spotted after a Chinese rocket launch, which could pose a threat to low-Earth satellites.

China launched its first batch of broadband satellites on Tuesday, August 6 with the aim of creating a megaconstellation similar to SpaceX’s Starlink. The Long March 6A rocket carried 18 satellites into orbit, launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province in Shanxi. The rocket launched the satellites into a cool atmosphere at an altitude of 500 miles (800 km) above the earth.

🚨 Slingshot Orbital Alert 🚨

Following China’s launch of 18 G60 satellites on August 6, Slingshot is tracking more than 50 pieces of space debris that pose a serious threat to LEO constellations below 800 km altitude. pic.twitter.com/Etmui8X5Po

– Slingshot Aerospace (@sling_shot_aero) August 7, 2024

However, after removing the satellites, the upper stage of the rocket appears to be separated. Space tracking company Slingshot Aerospace recorded more than 50 pieces of debris in the orbit of satellites following their launch, creating a trail of space debris that “poses a serious threat” to constellations of satellites in the same region, the company wrote.

The satellites are the first in China’s planned megaconstellation of 14,000, aimed at improving broadband services across the country. This is obviously a bad start, and may be a bad sign of things to come. “If even a fraction of the launch required to install this Chinese spacecraft produces as much debris as the first launch, the result would be a significant increase in space debris in LEO,” said Audrey Schaffer, vice president of Strategy and Policy. at Slingshot Aerospace, the statement said.

This is not the first time that China’s Long March 6A rocket has caused trouble in Earth orbit. In November 2022, the rocket’s upper stage broke up into 50 pieces of space debris, which later grew into a huge cloud of 350 pieces. Space debris came incredibly close to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, but no damage was reported.

The upper stage of the rocket must re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in one piece and burn up on re-entry. It is unclear what caused the rocket to break up in space, but the incident contributes to the growing problem of orbital debris.

“Incidents such as these highlight the importance of following existing space debris mitigation guidelines to minimize the creation of new space debris and underscore the need for strong spatial awareness capabilities to rapidly locate, track, and catalog newly launched space objects so they can be screened for potential contaminants,” said Schaffer.