Chinese Rocket Disintegrates Near Starlink Satellite Cluster
▼ Summary
– The upper stage of a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket broke apart in low-Earth orbit, creating debris near the ISS and Starlink satellites.
– The breakup occurred shortly after the June 9 launch, possibly during a planned disposal burn.
– The US Space Force confirmed the event and is monitoring debris, stating no current threat to human spaceflight.
– The fragmentation likely produced 100 to 150 debris pieces from the 8-meter-long rocket stage.
– The debris orbit crosses the ISS path, but drag will lower it, posing greater risk to lower-altitude Starlink satellites.
The upper stage of a Chinese commercial rocket that launched last week has disintegrated in orbit, scattering debris across one of the most congested regions of low-Earth orbit , an area that includes the International Space Station and a large portion of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation.
The breakup occurred shortly after the Zhuque-2E rocket reached orbit on June 9, carrying two satellites designed for direct-to-cell communications. It likely happened around the time the upper stage was scheduled to perform a disposal burn. The U. S. Space Force confirmed the event in a post on space-track.org, the military’s public platform for orbital data.
“The tracked pieces are being incorporated into routine conjunction assessment to support spaceflight safety,” the Space Force stated in an advisory. “There are currently no threats to human spaceflight. Analysis is ongoing.”
So far, the Space Force has not added any debris fragments to the official catalog of human-made space objects. Darren McKnight, a senior technical fellow at the orbital intelligence firm LeoLabs, estimated to Ars that the fragmentation likely produced 100 to 150 pieces of debris.
The second stage of the Zhuque-2E, built by the Chinese company LandSpace, measured roughly 25 to 30 feet (8 meters) long and 11 feet (3.35 meters) in diameter. The main body of the rocket’s upper stage now orbits between 208 miles and 263 miles (335 to 424 kilometers) at an inclination of 54.5 degrees to the equator.
The highest point of this orbit crosses the path of the International Space Station, though aerodynamic drag will quickly pull all debris fragments below the ISS. The greater threat, however, may be to hundreds of Starlink satellites, especially those providing direct-to-device connectivity and newly launched satellites, which operate at lower altitudes than the bulk of the Starlink fleet.
(Source: Ars Technica)
