Until a decade ago, China had never launched more than 20 orbital rockets in a year. But as of early 2022, the Asian country has launched 64 rockets and brought its record total to 93 last year, marking it as the second-most productive space power in the world.
Further growth is expected from both the company’s state-owned enterprises as well as the rapidly growing number of private launch companies. There is nothing wrong with this, as China’s rapid growth in launches has been mirrored by the United States, and especially SpaceX.
There is a problem with these launches, however, as China is ignoring long-established norms regarding disposal of the upper stages of rockets. These are the parts of the vehicle that separate from the rocket’s first stage and propel a satellite or spacecraft into orbit.
Moving towards best practices
In the early decades of space flight, the Soviet Union, United States, and other astronautics paid little attention to these upper stages, also known as “rocket bodies”. They were launched into all kinds of orbits, where they remained for decades before eventually succumbing to the slow pull of Earth’s gravity at high altitudes.
But over the past 20 years, most countries (and private companies operating within their borders) have taken a more responsible attitude toward the disposal of these upper stages. That’s because, as it turns out, large, multi-ton blocks of metal moving uncontrolled around low Earth orbit becomes a problem over time.
According to data from the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office as well as Jonathan McDowell’s General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, are the biggest culprits, with about 800 metric tons of rocket bodies in long-lived orbits between 600 km and 2,000 km above the Earth’s surface. By comparison, the United States has about 57 metric tons of spent upper stage in these orbits. However, these numbers remain more or less constant or, in the case of Russia, are gradually decreasing due to phase out orbit.
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