Recently, a Chinese rocket disintegrated after launching a satellite, creating hundreds of fragments and reportedly causing the largest rocket breakup event in history. This incident has once again raised concerns about Beijing’s handling of space debris.
The Long March-6A rocket, launched on August 6th, carried the first batch of satellites for China’s “Thousand Sail Broadband Network,” aiming to establish a system capable of competing with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service provided by Elon Musk. However, after the satellites were launched, the rocket broke into hundreds of pieces for reasons that remain unclear.
The U.S. Space Command, under the Pentagon, reported detecting over 300 fragments in low Earth orbit following the disintegration of the Chinese rocket a few days later.
LeoLabs, a U.S.-based space tracking company, stated that this event may have led to at least 700 fragments floating at an altitude of approximately 500 miles above Earth, making it one of the largest rocket breakup events in history. Starlink mentioned that, “as the event occurred in high orbit, these fragments may remain in space for many decades.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Beijing is actively following the U.S. in promoting an increased number of rocket launches, raising the risks for personnel and satellites in orbit due to its unsustainable practices.
Darren McKnight, a senior technical researcher at LeoLabs, expressed concern over Beijing’s record of producing debris during the recent Long March-6A launch. He stated, “I hope this serves as a wake-up call for them to engage in international dialogue.”
The European Space Agency provided data indicating that due to the high velocity of fragments in orbit, even pieces less than 4 inches in diameter could penetrate the protective layers of crew cabins on the International Space Station, while larger fragments could potentially shatter spacecraft.
Experts warn that incidents like these could result in a Kessler Syndrome, a chain reaction of collisions among space debris that could disrupt daily life, as navigation, television, communication, and other services rely on satellites.
In contrast, the United States successfully launched 104 satellites into orbit in 2023, compared to just 31 five years prior. Most U.S. space missions last year were conducted by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which frequently launches batches of Starlink network satellites. By February 2023, the Starlink project had already deployed over 3,500 satellites in orbit. SpaceX has also proposed a second-generation Starlink plan that aims to deploy a constellation of up to 29,988 satellites using Starship spacecraft.
Over the next few years, operators including SpaceX and Amazon are expected to conduct more launches, with Amazon working on developing a low Earth orbit satellite communication system.
Despite these advancements, Chinese rocket launches continue to face challenges. In April and July of this year, a Swiss space surveillance company s2a Systems detected dozens of fragments around the upper stage of the Long March-6A rocket. Furthermore, in November 2022, debris from the Chinese Long March-5B rocket fell back to Earth uncontrollably, generating over 500 fragments. Such actions by the Chinese space agency have been criticized as irresponsible by Western societies. The director of NASA, Bill Nelson, highly condemned the incident, pointing out the difficulty in predicting potential damages due to a lack of information, while China claimed the risk was minimal.
Scientists have long been concerned about space debris causing cascading collisions, leading to the destruction of satellites critical for daily life.
In April 2021, the Chinese Long March-5B Y2 rocket went out of control and deviated from its orbit, raising global concerns. This rocket was confirmed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean by the U.S. Space Command’s 18th Space Control Squadron on May 8th of the same year.
In April 2020, a Chinese Long March-3B rocket malfunctioned shortly after launch, destroying the $220 million Indonesian Nusantara-2 satellite, dealing a blow to Indonesia’s efforts to enhance its communication network. Indonesia eventually turned to the world’s most successful rocket launch company, SpaceX, to send satellites into space, making it Jakarta’s top choice for satellite launches.
In the previous year, the Long March-5B rocket carried a prototype of a Chinese manned space capsule during its maiden launch. However, the rocket booster lost control during reentry, and debris rained down on a village in Cote d’Ivoire.