Russia and China have developed a joint plan to counter the U.S. Starlink satellite communications constellation.This was reported by The Insider as part of a joint investigation with Der Spiegel […]
With the compressed gas actively keeping them in orbit they’re only expected to have a 5 year lifespan before they deorbit. Unpowered, they’d probably deorbit in about a year or so
Blowing up satellites turns it from 1 bit of space junk into thousands…
They’re so low they’ll just burn up
Eventually, doesn’t it still take a while though?
With the compressed gas actively keeping them in orbit they’re only expected to have a 5 year lifespan before they deorbit. Unpowered, they’d probably deorbit in about a year or so
Depends what new orbit a given piece of junk is in. It could be mostly higher, only approaching the old one at it’s semiminor axis.
It’s not as bad as blowing up a higher satellite, but most antisatellite weapons try to capture rather than destroy to avoid the question entirely.