Analyst on China’s rocket systems: “Things are just getting worse”

Until 10 years ago, China had not produced more than 20 rockets a year. But as of 2022, Asia has launched 64 rockets and last year it reached 93, making it the second largest space power producer in the world.

Further growth is expected from the company’s public sector investments and the growing number of companies. There is nothing wrong with this, because China’s rapid growth in launch has been demonstrated by the United States and, in particular, SpaceX.

However, there is a problem with this implementation, as China appears to be ignoring the long-established tradition of disposing of advanced rocket parts. These are the parts of the vehicle that separate from the first part of the rocket and push the satellite or spacecraft into orbit.

Towards good practice

At the beginning of the spaceflight decade, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other astronauts paid little attention to these advanced parts, also called “rocket bodies.” They were thrown into all sorts of ways, where they remained for many years before slowly succumbing to Earth’s gravity at high altitude.

But in the last 20 years, many countries (and the private companies operating within their borders) have taken a more serious approach to removing these high levels. This is because, as usual, having large, multi-ton objects orbiting in a relatively small Earth-Earth orbit becomes problematic over time.

The Soviet Union, and later Russia, is the main culprit, with about 800 tons of long-range rockets between 600 km and 2,000 km above the Earth’s surface, according to a study by the European Space Agency. Space Debris Office and Jonathan McDowell’s General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects. The United States, by comparison, has about 57 tons of high-quality parts used in this process. However, these numbers are stable or, in Russia, they gradually decrease as the steps are taken away.