A Long March 6A upper stage has deteriorated into 350 pieces of debris following a Nov. 12 breakup event.
Breakups of rocket stages are not uncommon. The European Space Agency's Space Debris Office at Darmstadt, Germany, notes that there have beenbreakups, explosions, collisions or anomalous events in orbit creating debris to date. A Russian space tug broke upCollisions with space debris or micrometeorites can create more junk.
Astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell told Space.com that the distribution of debris from the recently launched Long March 6A suggests an energetic event, rather than something like insulation flaking off the rocket body at low velocity. McDowell suggested that, given the timing, one possibility is a failure to vent propellant and then the residual propellant igniting, but he stressed that the cause is unclear.
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