China Rocket Ends Up As 300-Piece Space Junk After Satellite Constellation Launch

The 18 satellites were part of the first batch aimed to establish China's "own version of Elon Musk's Starlink", called the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband network.

China's Long March 6A rocket broke apart creating over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low Earth orbit, after achieving a significant milestone of launching 18 Qianfan satellites, the US Space Command (USSPACECOM) said today.

The 18 satellites were part of the first batch aimed to establish China's "own version of Elon Musk's Starlink", called the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband network.

The satellites were launched on Tuesday on the Long March 6A rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi Province.