Welcome to Rocket Report 8.14! It's been more than a week since the federal government shutdown began, but it has had little impact on the space industry. Military space operations continue as NASA continues preparations at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of the Artemis II mission around the moon early next year. The International Space Station, with a crew of seven, still flies in low Earth orbit, and NASA's fleet of space exploration spacecraft continues to operate. Moreover, most of what the country does in space is now done by commercial companies, which are largely (but not completely) insulated from political pitfalls. But the impact of the quarantine on troops and federal employees should not be overlooked. They will soon lose their first paychecks unless political leaders reach an agreement to end the impasse.
As always, we We welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an episode, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on light-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a brief overview of the next three launches on the calendar.
Danger from dead rockets. A new list of the 50 most disturbing pieces of space debris in low-Earth orbit is dominated by relics that are more than a quarter century old, mostly dead rockets left floating in space at the end of their missions. Ars reports. “What's left before the year 2000 is still a big part of the problem,” said Darren McKnight, lead author of the paper presented Oct. 3 at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. “76 percent of the top 50 objects were buried in the last century, and 88 percent of the objects are rocket casings. This is important to note, especially given some alarming trends right now.”
Garbage in Leo … The troubling trends largely revolve around China's activities in low Earth orbit. “The bad news is that since January 1, 2024, 26 rocket casings have been abandoned in low Earth orbit that will remain in orbit for more than 25 years,” McKnight told Ars. China is responsible for leaving behind 21 of those 26 missiles. Overall, Russia and the Soviet Union top the list with 34 sites included in McKnight's Top 50, followed by China with 10, the United States with three, Europe with two and Japan with one. Russia's SL-16 and SL-8 missiles are the worst offenders, collectively occupying 30 of the top 50 spots. A collision with even a small object at orbital speed would create countless pieces of debris, potentially triggering a cascading series of additional collisions that would fill LEO with more and more space debris. This scenario is called Kessler syndrome.
