SPACECOM Continues to Track Over 300 Pieces of Debris

A Chinese Long March 6A rocket was launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on August 6, 2024. Shortly after, observers noticed that the craft’s second stage seemed to break apart. The U.S. Space Command, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, later confirmed this on social media and continues to track the debris. 

This rocket is the first deployment of the Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology group’s “Thousand Sails” constellation. It successfully launched 18 satellites into space, and will eventually contain nearly 1300. There are plans, however, to expand the mega constellation’s capacity to around 14,000. This would put them far ahead of SpaceX Starlink’s current 6,281 satellites. 

Originally, Slingshot tracked around 50 pieces of debris in low-Earth orbit as a result of the breakup. Later, the USSPACECOM was tracking just over 300 pieces. Most recently, tracking company LeoLabs has confirmed at least 700 fragments, though they shared that there could be over 200 more. This debris is floating around 500 miles, or 800 km, above the surface. It poses a hazard to other satellite constellations below. 

On August 8th, U.S. Space Command shared on social media that their department “has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.” Despite this statement, experts are concerned for the future of the project. With hundreds of satellites still needing to join the constellation, the amount of debris in low-Earth orbit could continue to increase. 

“Events like this,” comments Audrey Schaffer, VP of Strategy and Policy for Slingshot, “highlight the importance of adherence to existing space debris mitigation guidelines to reduce the creation of new space debris and underscore the need for robust space domain awareness capabilities to rapidly detect, track, and catalog newly-launched space objects so they can be screened for potential conjunctions.”

Though, for now, USSPACECOM believes the debris is unproblematic, the issue could easily take a dark turn, especially as the debris continues to further break down and speed up in orbit. 

FMI: www.spacecom.mil