Comments on: Debris from suspected Chinese rocket discovered in western Australia https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/debris-from-suspected-chinese-rocket-discovered-in-western-australia/ Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:33:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Mike Borgelt https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/debris-from-suspected-chinese-rocket-discovered-in-western-australia/#comment-1623912 Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:33:02 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=118166#comment-1623912 Besides strip mining, storage of radioactive waste and keeping the coasts apart, disposing of space debris is another good use for the Australian outback. Known to Australian air force pilots and others as the GAFA.

]]> By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/debris-from-suspected-chinese-rocket-discovered-in-western-australia/#comment-1623896 Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:38:34 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=118166#comment-1623896 In reply to Rex W Ridenoure.

Rex W Ridenoure: If you read the full article that I link to, you will find it filled with a lot of other blather suggesting a great deal of ignorance about space, rocketry, and satellites. It also includes a lot of hyperbole that makes me very skeptical of the “smoking” claim.

It might be true, but I don’t believe it.

]]> By: Rex W Ridenoure https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/debris-from-suspected-chinese-rocket-discovered-in-western-australia/#comment-1623895 Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:51:57 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=118166#comment-1623895 The fourth stage of an orbital-class rocket is certainly an upper stage, and most likely the stage that inserted the payload into orbit. It would end up in LEO, at least for a time. This one was likely in LEO since September 24 and then re-entered and landed a couple weeks later. In this scenario, it is totally plausible that it was smoking when first spotted.

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