China destroys satellite with missile

[BobG]

An update on the aftereffects of China's ASAT test from CelestTrak.

1,337 pieces have been cataloged as of Apr 5. 44 of those pieces will re-enter the atmosphere within 10 years. Most will orbit for centuries. Since the test, there's routinely been more than 2500 close approaches (within 5 km) of space debris per week.

This stands to become one of the dumbest stunts staged in space history (Westford Needles back in the 60's was pretty dumb, as well - I can't think of any others that are comparable).

CelestTrak has some interesting data and some interesting scenarios. You have to download AGI's viewer software to watch the scenarios, but the viewer software is free.

 

[devil-fire]

hopefully if there is ever a war in space where opposing sides try to destroy all the other side's satellite, we don't end up with such a thick debris field around Earth that it becomes too difficult to put satellites in orbit again. i bet a trash collection project for orbital debris would be extremely expensive.

 

[Art]

Then again the US has a huge military advantage over China in terms of utilising space and the modern military parlance lays great emphasis on 3 dimendional warfare so perhaps the Chinese intention was to show the US it can severely limit 1 dimension by effectively mining space using the US's own satellites as mine material.

So although a severe nuisance in terms of making the peaceful exploration of space more difficult militarily it may not be so stupid.