A stage of a rocket launched by China that broke off in space created more than 700 pieces of debris, putting more than 1,000 satellites and other objects at risk of collision.
Chinese megaconstellation launch creates space debris field PHOTO: Space News
The Chinese state-owned company Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) launched 18 Internet satellites into orbit on Monday, representing the inaugural batch of a communications network designed to rival Starlink, belonging to the American company Space X, according to Agerpres.
The upper stage of the rocket that carried the satellites into orbit appeared to explode shortly after releasing the payload, creating a vast debris field that US space monitoring companies estimate to be at least 700 fragments.
The US Space Command initially said the event resulted in 300 pieces of debris, a number it predicted would increase as the cloud dissipated.
More than 1,100 satellites and other objects in space are at risk of colliding with debris from the missile launched by China, Audrey Schaffer, vice president of strategy at space monitoring company Slingshot Aerospace, told Reuters.
“What we’re seeing now is that there are over 1,100 conjunctions forecast with miss distances of less than 5km over the next three days.”he said.
Schaffer added that about a third of these objects at risk are active spacecraft that will likely be able to be maneuvered to avoid collision.
