Debris from Chinese ASAT Test Now More Than 3,000 pieces

Debris from Chinese ASAT Test Now More Than 3,000 pieces

The cloud of debris from the 2007 Chinese antisatellite test now numbers 3,037 pieces according to the latest issue of NASA’s Orbital Debris Quarterly News. China launched a kinetic kill attack against one of its own satellites in January 2007. The action was globally condemned less for its militaristic nature than for the massive amount of orbital debris it created, imperiling other satellites.

The NASA publication reports that 97 percent of the debris is still in orbit three and a half years after the event “posing distinct hazards to hundreds of operational satellites.” The debris from that one event represents 22 percent of all catalogued space objects in low Earth orbit according to NASA. Debris can generate more debris by collisions within the cloud.

This debris cloud, and another created by the 2009 unintentional collision of an operational U.S. commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite, spurred the new push for improved Space Situational Awareness (SSA). SSA is a major feature of President Obama’s new National Space Policy. Generally, SSA is intended to make information available to satellite operators on the location of other satellites and debris so collisions can be avoided.

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