Hundreds of debris fragments are circling the Earth as a Chinese rocket disintegrated in orbit following its launch on Tuesday, creating a potential hazard for satellites.
"U.S. Space Command can confirm the break-up of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched on August 6, 2024, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit (LEO)," read Thursday's statement from U.S. Space Command. It added no "immediate threats" had been detected.
The British Space Command put out a similar statement Wednesday in which it said analysis continues to "assess the potential hazards to U.K. satellites."
The rocket, launched from Shanxi province's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, carried Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology's initial batch of 18 communications satellites of the "Thousand Sails Constellation."
It could eventually be a rival to SpaceX's Starlink, with the goal of a 15,000-satellite-strong network in orbit by 2030.
Newsweek reached out to Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology with an emailed request for comment.
Slingshot Aerospace, a firm specializing in space analytics and simulation, said it has identified more than 50 pieces of debris from the Long March rocket that "pose a significant hazard to LEO constellations" orbiting at altitudes under 500 miles.
"If even a fraction of the launches needed to field this Chinese mega-constellation generates as much debris as this first launch, the result would be a notable addition to the space debris population in LEO," Slingshot quoted Audrey Schaffer, the company's vice president of strategy and policy, as saying.
NASA considered a satellite to be in low Earth orbit at altitudes of less than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) above the Earth's surface, a zone better suited for communication and observation.
"Space junk" travels at high speeds of up to 18,000 miles an hour. Therefore even small objects can inflict significant damage on spacecraft, including the satellites used for communications, weather forecasting, national security and navigation.
Rocket stages are typically designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere, where they ideally burn up, or to enter a graveyard orbit away from active satellites.
A similar incident in November 2022 saw the fragmentation of the upper stage of another Long March 6 rocket. NASA said it had cataloged 533 pieces of debris from the stage by the end of January 2023.
China seeks to establish itself as a major player in outer space, a new frontier for great power competition.
China conducted 67 space launch missions in 2023, second only to the U.S., and placed 221 spacecraft in orbit. China hopes to up its game with 100 launches this year, according to state media.