A defunct American reconnaissance satellite from the ’80s breaks up
It appears that a defunct American reconnaissance satellite, launched in 1988 and dubbed USA 32, suddenly broke apart in mid-September.
On Sept. 17, Space-Track — the satellite observation arm of the U.S. Space Force — announced that USA 32 suffered a sudden “fragmentation” event four days earlier, on Sept. 13. This essentially means the spacecraft exploded, potentially breaking apart into dozens, hundreds or even thousands of pieces. However, the agency did not specify what had caused this explosion or how many pieces of debris were created. And, as of Sept. 28, no one else has been able to answer either question.
Other organizations have since confirmed the fragmentation event, including the private satellite-tracking company s2a systems, which photographed the largest remaining piece of USA 32 in orbit.
The cause of the break-up is not known. At the moment it appears the location of all the fragments have not yet been mapped. Their orbit, about 480 miles above the Earth, places this space junk in a bad place for about 200 other satellites, though their orbit presently does not appear to threaten either ISS or China’s Tiangong-3 space station.
This incident once again illustrates the real need for commercial satellite space junk removal companies. Multiple satellite companies and governments would certainly pay for a service that could quickly get up there and sweep this debris from orbit.
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There is an interesting essay up on The Space Review today that might be relevant to this development, and it is worth noting especially because the author, Christopher Stone, was a senior Defense Department official in the first Trump Administration. His focus is on the breakup of Chinese rocket stages and payloads in orbit, however – suggesting that these might be part of a *deliberate* security strategy by the Chinese:
“The conventional explanation for China’s recurring upper-stage and satellite breakups is engineering failure, inadequate passivation, or poor debris management. That explanation may be correct. But another question deserves examination: could China exploit the effects of repeated apparent accidents as part of a broader counterspace strategy?”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5321/1
This could reinforce your call for commercial satellite space junk removal companies. If we started seeing such things deployed, especially at scale, the reaction by the People’s Republic of China might be . . . telling.
…And the CCP says, “We have our own orbital toys, Yankee.”
They do indeed – but not nearly as many, and they’re not in all the same orbits, either!
I don’t say that I agree with Stone’s theory, and it looks pretty tentative on his part anyway. But read the essay, and you’ll see what I mean.
Either way, there’s a lot of stuff up there in low Earth orbits, and definitely a good case for developing a commercial industry that cleans it up.
TransAstra’s CEO has spoken about using their capture bags for debris cleanup, at least of larger objects like stages. I do not know if they have any contracts to do that yet.