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There are 2,000-plus dead rockets in orbit—here’s a rare view of one (arstechnica.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

US Space Command said in December that the population of space debris in orbit has increased by 76 percent since 2019 to 44,600 objects. The uptick in space junk is primarily due to debris-generating events, such as anti-satellite tests or occasional explosions.

Holy crap, that's a huge increase in such a short time. Were there other dumbfuck ASAT tests during this time than that one Russian one?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

China, India, USSR, Russia, and the US have tested anti satellite systems. The US last public test was in 2008 and banned future tests in 2022. Russia last tested in 2021. China 2018, India 2019.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon#History_by_country

The alternative to smashing them with a missile is a high altitude nuclear bomb to fry them from the EMP blast without all the debris.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Oh yeah I know about the previous tests but the article specifically said that there's been a 76% increase since 2019. Guess the Indian test might also have played into it, I'd completely forgotten about that one