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Monday, July 5, 2021
CONTINUITY: Sixty Years Later—Space Debris Still in Orbit
The first major space debris event was 60 years ago, in Jun 1961, when the Ablestar 008 rocket exploded a few hours after delivering its payloads to orbit. Over 300 pieces were cataloged and 187 of those are still orbiting the Earth pic.twitter.com/P7jDnXroqD
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) July 4, 2021
The primary payload of the Thor Ablestar 008 launch was a Transit navigation satellite for the U.S. Navy. These satellites were launched into 1100 km polar orbits, which is higher than many low Earth orbit satellites, so debris from the rocket booster takes much longer to decay and re-enter.
Posted at July 5, 2021 11:29