Chinese Rocket Failure Creates New Debris Field Near Starlink Satellites

The rocket disintegration created more than 50 debris fragments that are now 'tumbling fast' very close to the orbit used by Starlink's satellites.

A Chinese rocket created more than 50 fragments of debris as it unexpectedly broke up on Nov. 12 in an orbit very close to that of SpaceX's Starlink satellites.

As the South China Morning Post(Opens in a new window) (SCMP) reports, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning confirmed that a Long March 6A rocket had disintegrated while in orbit, but failed to explain what had caused the failure. Ning went on to say that, "As far as we know, the relevant incident will not affect the Chinese space station or the International Space Station."

The disintegration of the rocket occurred at between 310-435 miles (500-700km) above Earth, which is notable because thousands of Starlink satellites orbit at 310 miles (500km). Cees Bassa(Opens in a new window), an astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, has confirmed at least 43 fragments from the rocket are "tumbling fast."

Although the Chinese government hasn't explained why the rocket broke up while in orbit, Bassa believes it failed shortly after releasing the Yunhai-3 ocean observation satellite it was carrying. The rocket was observed leaking fuel(Opens in a new window) during two consecutive passes over the US. Some rockets dump their fuel before de-orbiting to prevent catastrophic break-ups, but Cees believes something may have gone wrong during the dump.

Back in May, a group of Chinese researchers urged China to come up with ways to disrupt or destroy Starlink satellites. Releasing debris in the same orbit certainly holds the potential to do just that, which begs the question: was this an accident or a test?

A Chinese researcher, who asked not to be named, told SCMP that it's very unlikely the debris field was created intentionally. He pointed out there are three Chinese astronauts in space right now, and three more joining them soon.

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