https://www.space.com/china-megaconstellation-launch-space-junk
'The first launch for a coming Chinese internet megaconstellation turned out to
be quite messy.
On Tuesday morning (Aug. 6), a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched the first
18 satellites for the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband network, which will
eventually host up to 14,000 spacecraft.
The rocket successfully delivered the satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), at
an altitude of about 500 miles (800 kilometers). But its upper stage broke
apart shortly thereafter, generating a cloud of debris that's now racing around
our planet, according to United States Space Command (USSPACECOM).
"USSPACECOM can confirm the breakup of a Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug.
6, 2024, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low Earth orbit,"
the organization said in a statement today (Aug. 8). "USSPACECOM has observed
no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments
to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain."
"Trackable debris" is generally any object that's at least 4 inches (10
centimeters) in diameter. The newly spawned debris cloud doubtless also
contains many shards that are too small to monitor.'
Via Wayne Radinsky.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
