The head of the U.S. Space Command said Wednesday he would like to see more transparency from the Chinese government regarding space debris, especially after one of China's newer rockets has a tendency to break apart and litter low-Earth orbit with hundreds of pieces of space junk.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, said he has seen some improvement in dialogue between U.S. and Chinese military officials this year, but the dismantling of the upper stage of a Long March 6A rocket earlier this month showed that China could do more to prevent the creation of space debris and communicate openly about it when it happens.
The Chinese government confirmed the failure of the upper stage of the Long March 6A rocket in a statement from its Foreign Ministry on August 14, more than a week after the rocket's August 6 launch carrying the first load of 18 internet satellites for a mega-constellation of thousands of spacecraft analogous to SpaceX's Starlink network.
Space Command reported it had detected more than 300 objects related to the upper stage breakup in orbit, and LeoLabs, a commercial space situational awareness company, said its radars had detected at least 700 objects attributed to the Chinese rocket.
“I hope that the next time a rocket like this leaves a lot of debris behind, it's not our sensors that detect it first, but that we get messages that help us understand it, the way we communicate with others,” Whiting said at a Mitchell Institute event marking the fifth anniversary of the re-establishment of Space Command.
Whiting said he didn't know any technical details about why the Long March 6A rocket's upper stage broke apart, but it happened after the rocket had unloaded its entire payload. “They had already released the satellites at that point, and it seems like the mission overall was successful, but all that debris is left in orbit,” he said. “We certainly don't want to see that kind of debris.”
Due consideration
The Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron, based at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, is responsible for tracking objects in Earth orbit, maintaining a catalog of all satellites and space debris, and monitoring possible collisions between spacecraft or space debris. Space Command regularly issues alerts of conjunctions or proximity between objects to commercial companies and foreign governments.
“For decades, the United States has cared so much about space that we provide most of our tracking data to the world for free,” Whiting said. “We check all active satellites every day for all this junk and send alerts to everyone, including the Chinese and Russians.”
“Sometimes people ask, 'Why are you doing this?' Well, we don't want satellites colliding with debris and creating more debris. So we think this is very important and have a set of responsible behaviors that we follow every day. We pass on these notifications to the Chinese,” Whiting said.
The Commerce Department plans to take over some of the military's space traffic control responsibilities, but Space Command will maintain its own catalog and remain responsible for working with foreign militaries on space debris issues, Whiting said.