Chinese rocket upper stage breaks up in orbit, creating debris near space station altitude

The upper stage of a Zhuque-2E rocket launched by Chinese firm LandSpace fragmented in orbit shortly after reaching space on June 9. The breakup occurred around the time the stage was expected to perform a disposal burn. org and is tracking at least 51 objects from the breakup.

That number may increase as additional tracking data is collected. The second stage measured between 25 and 30 feet long and 11 feet in diameter. It is now orbiting between 208 and 263 miles at an inclination of 54.5 degrees, an altitude close to the International Space Station and some Starlink satellites.

Debris estimates and tracking Darren McKnight, a senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, told Ars Technica the fragmentation likely generated 100 to 150 pieces of debris. The debris cloud is located in a heavily trafficked region of low-Earth orbit. The Zhuque-2E carried two satellites for direct-to-cell communications. The launch was conducted by LandSpace, a Chinese commercial launch company.